Thursday.1
I feel sure, dear Mr Shillinglaw, that you will publish nothing in the "men of the times"2 without giving me a chance of seeing what you said. In my undeservedly painful position particularly care should be taken in biographic notes concerning me.
Regardfully
Ferd. von Mueller
Friday
still continued
In my distress and oppression, dear Mr Shillinglaw, I have quite an aversion to parade in the "men of the times". — It would be a parody of my former celebrity! Let me remain also thus far remain in oblivion, until a sound Statesmanship and an intelligent journalism supports my reinstatement or at least an honorable reestablishment of my Department. Anything that would appear in your book about me, would only be ridiculed & distorted by some leading men of the Melbourne press, with their usual meanness towards me!
In the newest edition of the English work "men of the times", some kind friends have contributed notes about me, which at the whole are fair & correct.3 If you absolutely must include one, now so disregarded & humiliatingly set aside, then make use of that article and if you call any Sunday or Saturday afternoon I may add a few trifling additions.
Regardfully,
Ferd von Mueller
I suppose your kind note in the Herald4 was refused at the Argus.
Letter clearly antedates M to J. Shillinglaw, 28 September 1877, on the same subject.
Shillinglaw was assembling material for Men of the time in Australia: Victorian series ([Humphreys] (1878)), in which an entry on M appeared in due course on p. 138. Although this work was published without an author or editor attribution, the State Library of Victoria guide (1968) identifies H. M. Humphreys, not Shillinglaw, as the editor; see http://latrobejournal.slv.vic.gov.au/latrobejournal/issue/latrobe-01/t1-g-t1.html.
Men of the time (Cooper (1875); M's entry is on pp. 744-5.
Note not identified.
Please cite as “FVM-77-09-00a,” in Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller, edited by R.W. Home, Thomas A. Darragh, A.M. Lucas, Sara Maroske, D.M. Sinkora†, J.H. Voigt† and Monika Wells accessed on