Letter from E.M.Forster to Leonard Woolf (02/07/1923)

 [[1]]

 

[[MS 2750/93/40]]

 

2-7-"[19]23"

 

Dear Leonard,

 

I hasten to withdraw, with all the expressions of horror customary on these occasions, my letter. It must have puzzled you, but the explanation is quite simple simple: I forgot what the terms were, and thought you were dividing inaccurately by two. Yes. 75/3 = 25 is perfectly right and I am sorry I bothered you to say so at length.  As for the second edition, I expect 1/3 profit also. If it does well and you wish to give me a bonus you may; but this is all I expect.

 

The nectarine is a curious peach. Charlotte Mews Farmer's Bride (Poetry Bookshop) is in a tolerable blue paper, but perhaps not stout enough for your purpose, or unobtainable. I forget the blue of your own 'Prelude,' but possibly that might have done.

 

 

[[2]]

I liked Brace*1. My only doubt is whether to go to him direct, or first try to get something whopping out of Knopf in the way of advances. If Knopf is only slightly better than H.B., I should go to the latter.  Brace mentioned 15% Royalty and 500 dollars in advance, which is not startling, but my 'arrival' in the States still remains a thing of doubt. (Two months ago I sent the New Republic the article I wrote for Eliot: no reply, nor to subsequent appeal for one, and today they turn it down).

 

Pharos and Pharillon seems to have come off a hit on Miss Ryde Smith's nose[?].

 

But every two days I get a letter from A.C Benson.

 

Shall communicate soon, asking when I may come.

 

M.

 

*Endnotes

 

1. Donald Brace of Harcourt & Brace

Rights Statement:

Reproduced with permission from the estate of the author, courtesy of Penguin Random House UK archive and library.

Source: MS 2750/93/40

Image Rights Holder: © Provost and Scholars of King’s College, Cambridge, Estate of E.M.Forster

Letter from E.M.Forster to Leonard Woolf (02/07/1923)

Author:

Library:

University of Reading, Special Collections

Forster withdraws his previous concerns explaining that he had forgotten what the terms were. He expects a third of the profits for the second edition and comments on the colour of the nectarine binding. He speaks about Harcourt Brace and Knopf and their offers.

Handwritten letter initialled by Forster [initialled M]