American author and Unitarian clergyman (1822-1909) remembered for his short story 'The Man Without a Country.' LS signed “Edw. E. Hale,” five pages on three sheets, 5.25 x 8, personal letterhead, December 20, 1893. Letter to Mrs. Jones, in part: "Thirty years ago, I had occasion to advise in a similar case. It was when Dr. Nichols removed here from Maine. I asked him if he had money enough to live here two years without receiving a cent from his patients. He stared, and said that was just what he could do. Then I told him I thought he had better come. He did come, and told me, after two years and a half, that every word of my prophecy had been correct. He said that for two years only one physician ever shook hands with him…but that after the two years turned he was in constant demand, that he was using two or three horses to keep up with his work, and that he had as good a practice as a man could ask for. I tell you this story because it exactly illustrates what Boston is. It takes people just about two years here to find out that anybody has come, or anything has happened. At the end of that time, they receive the person who is no longer a new-comer, as if he were one of themselves, with whom they had gone to school. So far as I can find out, that is the type of Boston interest. The people here want to imagine that everybody is just like themselves. And frankly, I should say to Dr. Jones that if he is willing to rough through two years of this absurd life in exile, he had better come here, and that, with his scientific prestige, and with the opportunities which such a man will make for himself, at the end of that time he will find he is well established." In fine condition.
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