He
had drawn up a plan of the edition, a sketch of the order in which the
writings were to come out, and what the volume was to contain, and he
placed it before me for approval or criticism. The edition was to be
preceded by an account of Goldschmidt as an author and of his artistic
development; if I would undertake to write this, I was asked to go to
see Goldschmidt, in order to hear what he himself regarded as the main
features and chief points of his literary career.
The draft of what the projected edition was to include made quite a
little parcel of papers; besides these, Steen gave me to read the actual
request to me to undertake the task, which was cautiously worded as a
letter, not to me, but to Bookseller Steen, and which Steen had been
expressly enjoined to bring back with him. Although I did not at all
like this last-mentioned item, and although this evidence of distrust
was in very conspicuous variance with the excessive and unmerited
confidence that was at the same time being shown me, this same
confidence impressed me greatly.
The information that Goldschmidt, undoubtedly the first prose writer in
the country, was about to break off his literary activity and
permanently leave Denmark, was in itself overwhelming and at once set my
imagination actively at work.
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