Horace Greeley writes a letter to Thoreau:
Write me something shorter and when the spirit moves (never write a line otherwise, for the hack writer is a slaveish beast, I know), and I will sell it for you soon. I want one shorter article from your pen that will be quoted, as these long articles cannot be, and let the public know something of following out your thought in an essay “The Literary Life?” You need not make a personal allusion but I know you can write an article worth reading on that theme when you are in the vein.