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New York, May 18, '39 My Dear Sir: Permit me to inquire, if you directed your clerk at Auburn to forward the [rest ?] of your [progress ?] as mentioned in your last, some weeks since? It has not yet reached us; and as there is but one number more, of the thirteen the volumes, to be prepared for the press, I am exceedingly anxious to include it in that issue; having "filed a declamation against you," to this effect, in a notice to our readers, a month or two ago. You will be gratified, I am sure, to learn, that, wide as was our circulation, it is rapidly increasing, at home and abroad. We have added a thousand copies to our edition, since the accession of Mr. Irving, who, as I gather from a recent letter from our London publishers, is equally popular in England, (over)
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We had Irving and Halleck at dinner with us, a few days since; and the former, looking incidentally over your kind present of old "Petrus Poterius", took occasion to speak of you and Mrs. S., in terms which made me like him even better than before; though he had been a more entertaining guest than I had ever before encountered. Mr. Halleck is now in our lists, and [ ?] [ ?] is in all respects devoted to the interests of your work; eliciting the aid of his distinguished literary friends, here and in England, and contributing largely himself. Should you have leisure to glance over the May number, you will detect his facile hand in all its departments. I have but just returned from Philadelphia. I found my brother nearly completely recovered from an indisposition, a bronchial complaint, that at one time threatened previous consequences. His little motherless boy, a lovely cherub, is his only real solace. Hoping to see you, in Albany, in the course of a few weeks, I remain, with high regard, Hon. W. H. Seward Very Sincerely Yrs. L. Gaylord Clark
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Paid Hon. William H. Seward, Albany, N.Y.
L. Gaylord Clark, N.Y. May 18. 1839
