"He was a great, robust-souled man, all whose merits are not even yet fully appreciated. But a grateful posterity will take the best of Care of Fenimore Cooper." (December 1851)
My dear Sir, they begin to patronize. All Fame is patronage. Let me be infamous: there is no patronage in that.
What “reputation” H.M. has is horrible. Think of it ! To go down to
posterity is bad enough, any way; but to go down as a “man who lived
among the cannibals”! When I speak of posterity, in reference to myself,
I only mean the babies who will probably be born in the moment
immediately ensuing upon my giving up the ghost. I shall go down to some
of them, in all likelihood. Typee will be given to them, perhaps, with their gingerbread.
(Letter to Nathaniel Hawthorne, early May 1851)
