Letter from John Lehmann to Spencer Curtis Brown (14/03/1940)

  • Typescript letter from John Lehmann to Spencer Curtis Brown (14/03/1940) page 1 of 1

[[1]]

 

[[MS 2750/2/1/4]]

 

14.3.[19]40.

 

Spencer Curtis Brown Esq., 
6 Henrietta Street, W.C.2.

 

Dear Curtis Brown,

 

I have been able to see my partner again and discuss Ali's book with him in the light of the revision which Ali undertook, and the further promise he made to out a cut a little more if we thought the book would be improved by so doing. As I said before, we both think that the book has very great qualities, and would like to see it on our list. Unfortunately the qualities- and the subject- are not such as make for popularity over here, and the length, even with the cuts, is well above the novel average. We feel that these considerations make the offer of an advance very difficult indeed, but we would be glad to give Ali as generous a contract as possible apart from that; we would then publish (the war allowing) in the Autumn and do everything in our power to organise publicity in the right quarters for it.

 

I should be pleased to have your observations as soon as possible.

 

Yours Sincerely | John Lehman [signature]

 

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Reproduced with permission from Penguin Random House UK Archive and Library owner of the Hogarth Press archive collection, held by the University of Reading Special Collections.

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Source: MS 2750/2/1/4

Letter from John Lehmann to Spencer Curtis Brown (14/03/1940)

Author:

Library:

University of Reading, Special Collections

Archival Folder:

Lehman proposes to publish Twilight in Delhi without advance, given the length and subject.

Typescript letter signed by Lehman