Letter from Abraham de Sola to Isaac Leeser;March 26, 1857
- Title
- Letter from Abraham de Sola to Isaac Leeser;March 26, 1857
- Author
- Abraham de Sola
- Contributor
- Isaac Leeser
- Date Created
- 26 March 1857
- Format
- Letter. 4 page(s) on 2 sheet(s).
- Letter
- Type
- Letter
- Language(s)
- English
- Has Format
- https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/items/ark:/81431/p3cn6zk2d/manifest.json
- Link to Colenda
- https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/catalog/81431-p3cn6zk2d
- Physical Characteristics
- Unlined Paper
- Manuscript
- content
-
Montreal 26th 5617.
Rev. Isaac Leeser
Philadelphia
Dear Sir—I enclose you a list of the subscribers I have been enabled to obtain for the Advocate. While sorry it is so meagre, I cannot but think that if the paper appears, you will get more, and if every congregation in the U. S. and elsewhere will do their share in proportion to one small cong. I do not doubt but you will publish at once. I regret the delay in forwarding you the list, sending it as i do at the extreme limit of the time advertised but the holydays, and after these, my absence twice from the city, and then a severe catarrh which kept me in the house a good week, all these did their share in delaying. I would have answered before this your last letter, but that I waited to send the list, and now it is only necessary for me to refer to one portion of it wherein you say my “cooperation” in any shape will be esteemed, or acceptable—I have not your letter before me, and don't recollect the exact expressive, but if you mean literary cooperation
I am sorry to say that I cannot give it so readily as the procuring of a few subscribers: First, there remains on “public record” in the Occident a price (I might say prices for the article on the election at Phila referring to the candidates makes it appear that certain testimonials were given me by way of favor, else why publish that so & so is a relative—the other a friend—the other a co-laborateur &c—but I pass this) In the piece to which I refer—your review of the Catechism I am made to appear in no very enviable a light—and as unsafe a writer as the “Israelite” editors—moreover you accuse me in the same article of “doing you some wrong” You may smile at my frivolous whims” but I take a leaf out of your book, and have determined I am right, and ought not to write for any paper conducted by you, until you see fit to find opportunity in the same public manner to imply the contrary of the interpretation I and all others I include all those of your friends whom I have had opportunity to see, (and they are many,) especially during the last year. Again—and this is difficulty the second in the way of literary cooperation I am not situated now as I was when I was a contributor to the Occident. I have now a family, and my time therefore becomes more valuable—Having had—and still having—fair offers of remuneration for literary labor from other sources, I could not properly become a contributor gratis to the Advocate, tho, I very readily become a
subscriber, & will otherwise do what I can for it. I tell you candidly the reason why I did not accept a very fair offer from another Jewish paper is that I am bound now to employ my time for the best advantage of my family. If however the first difficulty be removed, and the second also to some extent—i.e. You think my pen worth anything—not only for the Advocate, but for the Occident or what not—then I can assure you I would sooner employ it for an orthodox paper than another. I trust I have now been explicit enough—I have desired to be so, as both your time & mine is too short for a long correspondence on the subject. Please think the matter over; for it depends now entirely (I think) on you as to whether “bygones shall be bygones” and we work together cheerfully advantageously & understandingly—wiser for what is past. Should you see difficulties insufferable on your side, and we do not work together—then, after the above frank explanation you must be neither surprised nor amazed if I chance some future day to appear in another corner of the field you have entered—working by myself or in company with another. At present however this is not probable. Do not suppose from what I have just written that I wish thereby to influence your determination, for you will be greatly mistaken; and next please do not think I look to profit alone—for I could always more profitably employ myself in or for publications not exclusively Jewish—Where there are few laborers in Anglo-Jewish literature I prefer being
among them, the good natured are at liberty to say because I stand less chance of being extinguished.
Miss Belisario is I believe disappointed at the small circulation her book has in America. Can't you do something for it? I think it a very deserving publication—not because my fathers name is on the cover—for it was the almost entirely malgrè lui—but Miss B. is a very intimate friend of the family at home. I induced her first to learn Hebrew—giving her myself a little gratuitous instruction—and I have vanity enough to believe her when she says that this gave her more especially able for religious readings & writings. She ought to be encouraged; and your editorial gentleman not too severe in your criticisms. (altho' mal-apropos I can't help asking you whether you have seen a slashing article on silly novels by Lady novelists in the ? for October—the writer has been to a certaintly jilted by one of them) but to return a nos ? As Miss B. shows such a positive preference (literary!) for you over Marks, I hope you will be able to return my friends penchante. I have not seen yet the second part of her book. I hope to hear soon from you & remain
Yours Truly
Abraham de Sola - Identifier
- LSDCBx2FF4_20
- Date
- 1857-03-26
Part of Letter from Abraham de Sola to Isaac Leeser;March 26, 1857
Abraham de Sola, “Letter from Abraham de Sola to Isaac Leeser;March 26, 1857”, 1857-03-26, Isaac Leeser Digital Repository, accessed September 7, 2024, https://judaicadhpenn.org/legacyprojects/s/leeser/item/68260