If music-making had not still something to offer me, I assure you the time would soon come when you would seek me in vain, for my desire for death is growing and I am coming to know my own mind in the matter more and more clearly. I still hang on out of sheer ambition to show you such music as you have, perhaps, no conception of. And so the life instinct dwindles at last to a mere theoretical whim!
Hartel's are willing to accept the pianoforte pieces from Lohengrin. But they do not wish your name to appear, "because our public of amateurs," they write, "imagine difficulties and do not buy when they see the name of a well-known virtuoso on the cover." They would prefer that there should be no name, the suggestion being that the work was mine. I have discussed the matter with them already, but I see they will stick to their point. What am I to do? I think you should do the things soon too, and I will see you get properly paid for them. Let me have an answer.
Richard Wagner
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Volume 1, ed. Altmann/Hull (London: Dent, 1927), No. 256