Text: Nathaniel Hawthorne to Edgar Allan Poe — June 17, 1846

Salem, June 17, 1846.

My Dear Sir, — I presume the publishers will have sent you a copy of “Mosses from an Old Manse” the latest (and probably the last) collection of my tales and sketches. I have read your occasional notices of my productions with great interest — not so much because your judgment was, upon the whole, favorable, as because it seemed to be given in earnest. I care for nothing but the truth; and shall always much more readily accept a harsh truth, in regard to my writings, than a sugared falsehood.

I confess, however, that I admire you rather as a writer of tales than as a critic upon them, I might often — and often do — dissent from your opinions in the latter capacity, but could never fail to recognize your force and originality in the former.

Yours very truly,
Nath. Hawthorne.  

E. A. Poe, Esq., New York.