[...] My very thick book is finished; it has the title: “Opera and Drama”. I do not yet have a publisher: but since I must see to it this time that I get some money for it, I feel almost afraid of the whole affair.
I shall spend next month editing my 3 romantic opera poems: a substantial introduction will extend to cover the genesis of these poems and their relationship to the music. -
With the arrival of spring I then hope to begin work on the composition of Siegfried and stick continuously to the task in hand. -
I might add that my love of life is not great. It is very quiet and lonely here - and I often think of myself as having died and been forgotten.
[...]
Source: Selected Letters of Richard Wagner, trans. and ed. Stewart Spencer and Barry Millington (W. W. Norton & Company, 1988), No. 119