This sank into him and pained him.  He was nearly thirty-five, and hitherto all had been admiration, vague aspiration and despair; he had produced in painting nothing but a few sketches and studies, and in literature only a few ephemeral articles, a collection of youthful letters and a pamphlet on the Resurrection; moreover, to none of his work had anyone paid the slightest attention.  This was a poor return for all the money which had been spent upon his education, as Theobald would have said in The Way of All Flesh.  He returned home dejected, but resolved that things should be different in the future.  While in this frame of mind he received a visit from one of his New Zealand friends, the late Sir F. Napier Broome, afterwards Governor of Western Australia, who incidentally suggested his rewriting his New Zealand articles.  The idea pleased him; it might not be creating, but at least it would be doing something.  So he set to work on Sundays and in the evenings, as relaxation from his profession of painting, and, taking his New Zealand article, “Darwin among the Machines,” and another, “The World of the Unborn,” as a starting point and helping himself with a few sentences from A First Year in Canterbury Settlement, he gradually formed Erewhon.  He sent the Ms. bit by bit, as it was written, to Miss Savage for her criticism and approval.  He had the usual difficulty about finding a publisher.  Chapman and Hall refused the book on the advice of George Meredith, who was then their reader, and in the end he published it at his own expense through Messrs. Trubner.

Mr. Sydney C. Cockerell told me that in 1912 Mr. Bertram Dobell, second-hand bookseller of Charing Cross Road, offered a copy of Erewhon for 1 pounds 10s.; it was thus described in his catalogue:  “Unique copy with the following note in the author’s handwriting on the half-title:  ’To Miss E. M. A. Savage this first copy of Erewhon with the author’s best thanks for many invaluable suggestions and corrections.’” When Mr. Cockerell inquired for the book it was sold.  After Miss Savage’s death in 1885 all Butler’s letters to her were returned to him, including the letter he wrote when he sent her this copy of Erewhon.  He gave her the first copy issued of all his books that were published in her lifetime, and, no doubt, wrote an inscription in each.  If the present possessors of any of them should happen to read this sketch I hope they will communicate with me, as I should like to see these books.  I should also like to see some numbers of the Drawing-Room Gazette, which about this time belonged to or was edited by a Mrs. Briggs.  Miss Savage wrote a review of Erewhon, which appeared in the number for 8th June, 1872, and Butler quoted a sentence from her review among the press notices in the second edition.  She persuaded him to write for Mrs. Briggs notices of concerts at which Handel’s music was performed.  In 1901 he made a note on one of his letters that he was thankful there were no copies of the Drawing-Room Gazette in the British Museum, meaning that he did not want people to read his musical criticisms; nevertheless, I hope some day to come across back numbers containing his articles.