British Museum. Dec. 13th, 1872.
Dear Mr. Andersen,
It was a great delight to me to receive your kind letter, and to learn from it that you are better after your long sickness. May God soon restore you to perfect strength! As soon as I received your letter, I put a few lines into the "Athenæum", that your English friends might be relieved from their anxiety about you. I enclose what I said.
Now to thank you for the gift of your new Eventyr. I have only had time to read the first, which is charming. I write now at once to ask you if you will not let me translate them into English? If you will, tell me so directly, and I will communicate at once with a publisher.
We ought to lose no time, as the winter-season is passing. They are so beautiful that I wish all my countrymen to enjoy them with me. Thank you again for sending them to me; they will be very precious to me as coming direct from you.
Very truly yours,
Edmund W. Gosse
