It was only a little one, and he saw no likelihood of its
having any successors. So he satisfied its demands and then,
supposing that he had written himself out, looked forward to a
future in which nothing should interfere with the painting.
Nevertheless, when another of the unborn came teasing him he yielded
to its importunities and allowed himself to become the author of The
Fair Haven, which is his pamphlet on the Resurrection, enlarged and
preceded by a realistic memoir of the pseudonymous author, John
Pickard Owen. In the library of St. John's College, Cambridge, are
two copies of the pamphlet with pages cut out; he used these pages
in forming the MS. of The Fair Haven. To have published this book
as by the author of Erewhon would have been to give away the irony
and satire. And he had another reason for not disclosing his name;
he remembered that as soon as curiosity about the authorship of
Erewhon was satisfied, the weekly sales fell from fifty down to only
two or three. But, as he always talked openly of whatever was in
his mind, he soon let out the secret of the authorship of The Fair
Haven, and it became advisable to put his name to a second edition.
Pages:
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51