There wasn't a man behind a pen in all America that had the courage to find anything in the book which Mr.Howells had not found--there wasn't a man behind a pen in America that had spirit enough to say a brave and original thing about the book on his own responsibility.
I believe that the trade of critic, in literature, music, and the drama, is the most degraded of all trades, and that it has no real value--certainly no large value.

When Charles Dudley Warner and I were about to bring out "The Gilded Age," the editor of the "Daily Graphic" persuaded me to let him have an advance copy, he giving me his word of honor that no notice of it would appear in his paper until after the "Atlantic Monthly" notice should have appeared.

This reptile published a review of the book within three days afterward.

I could not really complain, because he had only given me his word of honor as security; I ought to have required of him something substantial.

I believe his notice did not deal mainly with the merit of the book, or the lack of it, but with my moral attitude toward the public.