p.

COPY Heran, Lafcadio to Horace Scudder

Dear Ms.Scudder:-

I add an after-thought:-
I beg you will judge my work rather by the later than
the earlier MSS. It is only now, after a year and a half that I
begin to know something about Japan - the most difficult of all
civilized countries to know, and one in which first impressions
are most deceptive. The ultimate value of my work cannot, I
think, be fairly seen from those first impressions;- nor can I
hope to make everything perfect in any MS. It is the final
revision and subsequent book-proof reading that will tell, - if
the completed work please you-
However, I would like to know whether you think well or
ill of the possibilities of my undertaking, - as your decision
would affect, not the present plan, but the method of carrying it
out.
Very truly yours,
Lafcadio Hearn

[Has stamped date Houghton, Mifflin & Co.Boston.Sep.3 1891]