Wednesday, December 19, 2018

Thomas Wentworth Higginson to Harriet Prescott

Dr. Holmes — whom you evidently did not fancy, though you describe his talk so well — is really superior, at every point I can think of, to Lowell, whom you liked so much; I should except personal appearances, for Lowell's brow and eyes are Apollo-like, while all Holmes's face is small in outline and expression, though mobile and vivacious. . . .

Maria Lowell was a living poem. She was his inspiration and his moral tonic beside, and he has been living on her memory ever since, in both respects. . . .

The chief editor [Lowell of the “Atlantic”] reads every article without knowing the author's name, so as to be perfectly impartial.

SOURCE: Mary Potter Thacher Higginson, Editor, Letters and Journals of Thomas Wentworth Higginson, 1846-1906, p. 110-1

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