My Contemporaries in Fiction

When these essays were originally printed (they appeared simultaneously in many newspa-pers), I expected to make some enemies. So far, I have been most agreeably disappointed in that regard; but I can affirm that they have made me many friends, and that I have had encouragement enough from fellow craftsmen, from professional critics, and from casual readers at home, in the colonies, and the United States to bolster up the courage of the most timorous man that ever held a pen. As a...
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When these essays were originally printed (they appeared simultaneously in many newspa-pers), I expected to make some enemies. So far, I have been most agreeably disappointed in that regard; but I can affirm that they have made me many friends, and that I have had encouragement enough from fellow craftsmen, from professional critics, and from casual readers at home, in the colonies, and the United States to bolster up the courage of the most timorous man that ever held a pen. As a set-off against all this, I have received one very noble and dignified rebuke from a Con-temporary in Fiction, whom the world holds in high honour, who regrets that I am not engaged in creative work--in lieu of this--and pleads that ,,authorship should be allowed the distinction of an exemption from rank and title.‟