As their tastes and
inclinations were along the same lines which Mrs. Porter loved to follow,
it gave them great pleasure to be associated with her books which opened
the eyes of so great a public to new and worthy fields of enjoyment.
The history of "Freckles" is unique. The publishers had inserted
marginal drawings on many pages, but these, instead of attracting
attention to the nature charm of the book, seemed to have exactly
a contrary effect. The public wanted a novel. The illustrations
made it appear to be a nature book, and it required three long slow
years for "Freckles" to pass from hand to hand and prove that there
really was a novel between the covers, but that it was a story that
took its own time and wound slowly toward its end, stopping its
leisurely course for bird, flower, lichen face, blue sky, perfumed
wind, and the closest intimacies of the daily life of common folk.
Ten years have wrought a great change in the sentiment against
nature work and the interest in it. Thousands who then looked upon
the world with unobserving eyes are now straining every nerve to
accumulate enough to be able to end life where they may have bird,
flower, and tree for daily companions.
Mrs. Porter's account of the advice she received at this time is
particularly interesting. Three editors who read "Freckles" before
it was published offered to produce it, but all of them expressed
precisely the same opinion: "The book will never sell well as it
is.
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