Dear and Highly Respected Doctor!
Accept the expression of my heartiest thanks for your kind lines of the 25th, and at the same time the assurance that I was not in the least offended at your first inquiring about the letters through an intermediary. On the contrary, I found this very delicate of you, since it was easier for me to give a negative reply to the publisher than to you, highly esteemed Herr Doctor.
I cannot tell you how sad it makes me feel, not to be able to respond to you and your request, but it is really not possible for me. The character of the correspondence with your dear, highly respected father is of such intimacy that it cannot be made public.
Yesterday I spoke with Baron Wolzogen and asked him to draw up, for our Bayreuther Blätter, a biographical account of your memorable father. Would you have the goodness to send me some biographical notes for that purpose? To this sketch I would add a few of the letters, perhaps five in number, and all expressions of gratitude and affection in the letters.
I would send you the letters of your dear father instantly and keep only copies for myself, but from the very beginning there has ruled in our house the principle of destroying all intimate letters. However, I shall search thoroughly once again, and should one letter or another be forthcoming, I shall have it sent to you at once, dear Herr Hofrath.
In the latter half of January I expect to come to Dresden, and I am already enjoying the thought of visiting your dear wife and exchanging sacred old memories with you.
Thank you, dear and highly respected Herr Hofrath, for your considerate understanding of my position and my duty, and receive with friendliest greetings to you and your wife the assurance of my heartiest
Esteem and faithful devotion,
C. Wagner
Source: The Letters of Richard Wagner to Anton Pusinelli, trans. and ed. Elbert Lenrow (Alfred A. Knopf, 1932), No. 109