Of her
great work she has written, in that noble introduction to the
illustrated edition of "Uncle Tom" speaking of herself in the third
person: "The story can less be said to have been composed by her than
imposed upon her.... The book insisted upon getting itself into being,
and would take no denial."
It is easily seen that it was neither a spirit of depreciation of
knowledge nor lack of power to become a student which made her fail to
obtain adjuncts indispensable to great writers, but her feet were led
in other paths and her strength was needed for other ends. Madame
George Sand said, writing of "Uncle Tom" soon after its publication:
"If its judges, possessed with the love of what they call 'artistic
work,' find unskillful treatment in the book, look well at them to see
if their eyes are dry when they are reading this or that chapter.... I
cannot say that Mrs. Stowe has talent, as one understands it in the
world of letters, but she has genius, as humanity feels the need of
genius,--the genius of goodness, not that of the rules of letters, but
of the saint."
All her life she stimulated the activity of her pen rather by her
sympathy with humanity than by studies of literature. In one of her
letters she says: "You see whoever can write on home and family
matters, on what people think of and are anxious about and want to
hear from, has an immense advantage. The success of the 'House and
Home Papers' shows me how much people want this sort of thing, and now
I am bringing the series to a close I find I have ever so much more to
say; in fact, the idea has come in this shape.
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