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The fact is, almost everybody is having his “mug” engraved nowadays; so that this test of distinction is getting to be reversed; and therefore, to see one’s “mug” in a magazine, is presumptive evidence that he’s a nobody. So being as vain a man as ever lived & beleiving that my illustrious name is famous throughout the world - I respectfully decline being oblivionated by a Daguerrotype…
Melville, contestándole a la petición de Evert Duyckinck de ser fotografiado, en febrero de 1851.