America is now wholly given over to a damned mob of scribbling women, and I should have no chance of success while the public taste is occupied with their trash--and should be ashamed of myself if I did succeed. What is the mystery of these innumberable editions of The Lamplighter (by Maria Susanna Cummins), and other books neither better nor worse? Worse they could not be, and better they need not be, when they sell by the hundred thousand. Nathaniel Hawthorne
About This Quote

Maria Susanna Cummins is an American writer who published her first book, The Lamplighter, in 1828. Her second book, Misty, was published in 1833. Her third book, The Red Lily of the West, was published in 1836. Her fourth book, The Cry of the Children, was published in 1840.

Her fifth book, The Lily of the Valley, came out in 1842. Her sixth book, The Sorrows of Arthur, came out in 1843. Many people would consider Maria Susanna Cummins to be one of the first popular female writers of all time.

She wrote many books about love and heartbreak and death and hope and sorrow and childhood memories. However, her books never sold well because they were too depressing for people to purchase or read. In this quote from an 1839 letter to a friend she explains why her books never sold well: “America is now wholly given over to a damned mob of scribbling women, and I should have no chance of success while the public taste is occupied with their trash – and should be ashamed of myself if I did succeed”

Some Similar Quotes
  1. A lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment. - Jane Austen
  2. I would always rather be happy than dignified. - Unknown
  3. Well, it seems to me that the best relationships - the ones that last - are frequently the ones that are rooted in friendship. You know, one day you look at the person and you see something more than you did the night before. Like... - Gillian Anderson
  4. It’s probably not just by chance that I’m alone. It would be very hard for a man to live with me, unless he’s terribly strong. And if he’s stronger than I, I’m the one who can’t live with him. … I’m neither smart nor stupid,... - Coco Chanel
  5. I am not an angel, ' I asserted; 'and I will not be one till I die: I will be myself. Mr. Rochester, you must neither expect nor exact anything celestial of me - for you will not get it, any more than I shall... - Unknown
More Quotes By Nathaniel Hawthorne
  1. Love, whether newly born or aroused from a deathlike slumber, must always create sunshine, filling the heart so full of radiance, that it overflows upon the outward world.
  2. Oh, for the years I have not lived, but only dreamed of living.
  3. Happiness is like a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.
  4. Every individual has a place to fill in the world and is important in some respect, whether he chooses to be so or not.
  5. Death should take me while I am in the mood.
Related Topics