 Section 1 of a battle of the books. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Amelia Chesley. A Battle of the Books by Gail Hamilton. Chapter 1. Editor's Introduction. The papers comprising the following narrative called A Battle of the Books were found in my state room after a violent storm during a long and dangerous sea voyage which I was once forced to undertake. They were much stained with salt water, but were for the most part legible. The name of the author or compiler is not given, but I judge somewhat from the chirography, chiefly from incontestable internal evidence, that the writer is a woman. As this evidence will unfold itself to the reader in the course of the narrative, I shall not dwell upon it. Nor is it indeed a matter of importance, except as it bears upon the question of the participation in the government by both sexes. Viewed from that point, it shows with great force the inability of women to understand affairs and the groundlessness of the present clamour for a change of status. It proves beyond question that all that women need do is to trust, and all that men care to do is to protect. The date given is of the last century, but of its accuracy I am not assured. The manuscript is soiled and stained and shabby enough, but the storm which brought it to my feet would account for that. There are references, allusions and even names which point to a time far within the memory of men still living. But this is not conclusive, since I believe according to the best scriptural exegesis, the name of a historical person in a book, as for instance that of Cyrus in Isaiah, does not determine the date so much as the nature of the writing, simply changing it from history to prophecy. No one in reading this story will suspect it of scriptural inspiration, but may not the writer have been in that state, which is sometimes called clairvoyant, and which is perhaps but a pretty naturally acute condition of the intellectual perceptions, wherein the logic of events is so plainly seen that the future is as clear and certain as the past, and that which is to happen seems as much a matter of fact as that which has happened. If the human mind can calculate an eclipse of the sun with entire accuracy, three thousand years beforehand, why should it be thought a thing incredible that the human heart should be able to calculate some of the incidents of an eclipse of faith a hundred years in advance? But as upon the question of authorship, so upon that of chronology, I conceive the strongest evidence to be internal. The state of society described in this narrative is surely no nearer than a hundred years. It chronicles an age of barbarism when author and publisher were natural enemies and relieved the monotony of their lives by petty skirmishing or pitched battles with each other. This age happily for us has passed away and exists only in tradition. Whether from the universal softening of manners which accompanies the introduction of Christianity, and in which both publishers and authors may be supposed to have shared, or from that equally universal brightening and quickening of the intellect which attended the Renaissance, and which may have enabled even publishers to see how he that watered shall be watered also himself, certain it is that these times of turbulence are gone, and we have peace. No longer does the wily publisher lie in wait seeking what chance he may have to devour his author. Rather he woos him to receive his dues, wins open with gentle urgency the hand no longer grasping, but modest and reluctant, and presses into it the crisp abundant bills. No longer do authors shamelessly drink toasts to the despotic emperor to whose thousand crimes is linked to the one virtue of having hanged a bookseller. On the contrary, they raise their harps and join voices to sing their benefactor's praise. Who has not seen in all the newspapers the effecting tale of the great house of fields Osgoode and company, Norman Clarem at Venerable, on whom has fallen the mantle of Tychnor and Fields. Fame spread her wings and with her trumpet blew. The story of their having offered payment to an author which he declined to receive because he had once had money for the writing. But replied the firm, we intend to use the article for a book. We make profit on both. Why should you hesitate to take pay? I am sure I ought not to take it, said the author. I should not if I acted according to my ideal. I don't believe it is honest to take money twice for the same piece of work. But do reply the publisher. We insist upon it as our right, and insist he did till the author coily yielded. History is silent from this point, but the imagination fondly stooped to trace the scene. Undoubtedly this prince of publishers like Mr. Pexniff, when blessing Martin Chuzzawit for hating him, waved his right hand with much solemnity. There was emotion in his manner, but his step was firm. Subject to human weaknesses, he was upheld by conscience. Here also what the Atlantic monthly says. There are no businessmen more honorable or more generous than the publishers of the United States, and especially honorable and considerate towards authors. The relation usually existing between author and publisher in the United States is that of a warm and lasting friendship. Such as now animates and dignifies the intercourse between the literary men of New England and Mr. Tickner in Fields. The relation too is one of a singular mutual trustfulness. The author receives his semi-annual account from the publisher with as absolute a faith in its correctness as though he had himself counted with the volumes sold. We have heard of instances in which a publisher had serious cause of complaint against an author, but never have we known an author to be intentionally wronged by a publisher. How common too is it in the trade for a publisher to go beyond the letter of his bond and after publishing five books without profit to give the author of the successful sixth more than the stipulated price. Time and scissors would fail me to cull from the journals all the ingenious and touching paragraphs which show how the eminent publishers referred to do good by stealth and blush to find it fame. Doubtless similar illustrations might also be drawn in great numbers from other sources where ordinary publishers in the courtly habit of keeping a historian to record their royal deeds. But enough has been said to show that the publishers of today have become evangelized and no longer seek every man his own but every man the things of another. I infer therefore without hesitation that the dates of the following papers are correct and that notwithstanding a certain confusion in the nomenclature the state of things they describe belongs exclusively to the good old times of a hundred years ago. Joined to the main body of the narrative were injunctions the most imperative regarding its publication. But even had I chosen to disregard these there are other reasons which might have impaled me to the same course. As one sitting by his own fireside glows with a deeper content for the sound of the storm without so we who live in this golden age of love may all the more rejoice seeing how they let their angry passions rise in the brave days of old. I would say then borrowing the language of an old Sunday school hymn. Authors attend while I relate a new and simple story that will teach your hearts with thankfulness to praise the Lord of glory. But the lines have fallen to you in pleasant places and that you receive your goodly heritage without having to fight for it. End of section one. Section two of a battle of the books. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Al Graf. A battle of the books by Gail Hamilton. Authors introduction. When in the course of human events becomes necessary for an author to dissolve the bands which have connected him with his publishers A decent respect for the opinions of mankind requires that he should declare the causes which impel him to the separation. The war between authors and publishers has been a conflict of ages. On the one side the publisher has been looked upon as a species of wantly dragon whose daily food was the brain and blood of hapless writers. Devoured he poor authors all that could not with him grapple. But at once up he ate them up as one would eat an apple. On the other side the author has been considered like Shelley an eternal child in all that relates to practical business matters and a terrible child at that incapable of comprehending details and unreasonably dissatisfied with results. A definite illustration will sometimes throw more light on a general principle than reams of abstract discussion but in the matters of this sort definite illustrations are very hard to come at. In any case of trouble between author and publisher it is for the interest of the latter that it be kept as quiet as possible. Even if he be unquestionably right and the difficulty be owing solely to the authors inexperience and impracticability the ill odor of having had a quarrel will hardly be neutralized by any knowledge of its causelessness. The sympathy of the public is more likely to be with the author than with the publisher. The author also is held to silence by various considerations. The difficulty of getting at the real state of the case and the misgiving which results from it the always unpleasant nature of the controversy, the obtusion of one's private affairs as if it were a theme of general interest, the uncertainty of any good to be obtained, the fatigue and disgust of the quarrel itself, a thousand circumstances combined to make it appear altogether easier and better to let the matter go than to take the trouble of any adequate presentation or explanation of it. But as he is never quite satisfied he can never quite let it go and though there come not a real thunderstorm crashing among the hills but clearing the skies there are low mutterings and occasional flashes which betoken a signal discontent of the elements. Thus exists the chronic feud between authors and publishers partly traditional, partly experimental, a matter often for outward jest but quite as often of deep and serious import. It is a sort of bushwhacking in which every man whacks on his own account and frequently does not know that there is any other bushwhacker than himself. So the warfare goes on but to no end. Nobody learns wisdom from another man's experience because the other man keeps his experience to himself. I propose to supply what the theologians call a felt want and to become the historian of a contest all of which I saw and part of which I was. From the confusions of long misunderstanding I would feign evolve an intelligent and lasting peace when in the language of Dr. Johnson I am animated by this wish I look with pleasure on my book however defective and deliver it to the world with the spirit of a man that has endeavored well. If it be instigated by any other motive that pure benevolence the fact will doubtless appear in his progress should my little cask of oil be poured out in vain upon the stormy waters should I instead of soothing their rage be whelmed beneath it there remains the consoling assurance that no one else is involved in my fate. It would be hypocritical to apologize for the intrusion of private affairs upon public notice when it is notorious that there is nothing the public so dearly loves nothing upon which it so eagerly fastens nothing which it so greedily devours as private affairs indeed the privacy of affairs seems to be sometimes the only element of interest they possessed and the delight which the public finds in them is proportion to the amount of good manners it was necessary to sacrifice in order to get at them. I give fair warning that this narration is not intended to be of interest or value to any but authors and publishers a logbook is not generally considered very entertaining reading yet it may be scanned with great eagerness by those who are following the track at Chronicles this is simply the logbook of a desperate voyage a careful knowledge of which may prevent many a young mariner from being drawn into it himself. End of Section 2 Recording by Al Graf Section 3 of A Battle of the Books This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Read by Angelique G. Campbell December 2018 A Battle of the Books by Gail Hamilton Rise in Progress of Suspicion in the Soul My relations with the House of Brummel and Hunt began somewhere about the year 1760 until 1768 these relations had always been agreeable I seemed to be living in an orchard of pomegranates with pleasant fruits I thought, as Mr. Tennyson remarked to the lily there is but one publishing house and that is the House of Measures, Brummel and Hunt All others were to me outside barbarians, mercenary hirelings mere hewers of wood and drawers of water Measures, Brummel and Hunt published on high moral grounds from love of literature and general benevolence Gingerbread followed their virtue indeed but had no partner lot in it My dealings were with Mr. Hunt The business aspect of our connection came to be nearly lost sight of behind the veil of friendship Money arrangements I left entirely to him I never stipulated for anything, either on books or magazine articles I consider that he best knew the money value of these things and that, as we are constantly told the interest of author and of publisher are one He accordingly paid me whatever he chose and I was entirely satisfied One day in December 1767 Happening to want more money than was due me I recollect at having seen, a few weeks before an article in the segregational issue most on the pay of authors which said in regards to books the common percentage paid by publishers to average writers is 10% upon the retail price of the book the copies given to the press for notice not being included in the estimate Thus, for an addition of a volume whose retail price is $1 the account would be made up thus Suppose 1,000 copies to be printed of which 90 are distributed to the press and otherwise given away for notice and the balance sold the publisher would owe the author 1,000 minus 90 equals 910 copies at 10 cents each $91 and so proportionately for larger works at costlier prices Without the least presentiment of anything uncanny I made the following reference to it in a letter to Mr. Hunt The exact unfolds the beginning of Sorrows Now see, in the segregational issue most this very morning I saw an article about the pay of authors in which it said that the ordinary price for average authors was 10% on the retail price of the book but according to my account I don't have 10% I only have somewhere about 7% or 8% Looking in my papers I find that all the contracts I have are only for 15 cent on the $2 volumes which certainly is not 10% except the first contract for City Lights which says 10% but the bills or accounts or whatever it is are made up of that not a 10% but just as the other 15 cents on the volume at least this is the way I make it out but I am not good at figures and may have made some mistake however, here are the papers and you can see for yourself or I will show them to Judge Dane when I go to Athens I don't like to talk about it here at home anyway but perhaps you will know all about it from what I have said and perhaps it is all right but certainly I am an average writer and you are an ordinary publisher not to say extraordinary and I want all the money I can possibly get and more too especially blank dollars by and by it just occurs to me that you may possibly think that I think that you have been falling into temptation my dear friend and fellow sinner you should stand up with both hands on your heart and swear that you had cheated me I should not believe you I should say poor fellow work and worry have done their work his brilliant intellect I saw a lovely private asylum in Corinth I would go there and spend the summer yours, sane or insane I waited nearly two weeks and then receiving no reply to this letter I wrote to my friend Mr. Jackson a book publisher of Corinth asking him several questions but avoiding as far as possible any personality or giving rise to any suspicion I hoped he would think I was merely collecting information on the 16th of January nearly three weeks after my letter was sent came a reply from Mr. Hunt in which the only reference to my inquiry was I have not answered your last letter touching the terms expressed in the contracts but you and I went over that matter once and it was with your entire concurrence without use based upon the present state of trade and manufacture that the amount was decided on when you come to town we will go all over it again and it will be again settled to your entire satisfaction this reply did not meet my question I was aware that I had concurred in their views as my name on the contract showed it but I was not aware of ever having gone over the matter and I did not care for a second settlement while I was as yet unassured of a first I wrote again replying also to an invitation my telegram received the same day from a member of Mr. Hunt's family my dear Mr. Hunt this is great of you to come down here with a gay letter and utterly blink out of sight the fact of your having made me wretched for three weeks by not writing of course I concurred in your views if you had said to me going to the state of trade and manufacturers all the trees are now going to be bread and cheese and all the rivers ink I should have said yes that is a very wise measure I don't remember ever talking the thing over with you but I dare say as I did or rather you talked and I nodded as usual and of course I agreed for here are the contracts that say so and if I don't know what is in those contracts and accounts it is not for want of patient industry if I had as many dollars as I have poured over those miserable papers the last two weeks I would build a meeting house don't you see the trouble lies back of the contract why did you wish me to be having seven or eight percent when other people are getting ten if it was because I was not worth more you need not be afraid to say so I can bear a great deal of rugged truth but why am I not worth more when there is not a paper of any standing in the country to put it rather strongly that has not applied to me to become a contributor offering me my own terms does not this show that I have at least a commercial value writing books seems a more dignified thing than writing newspapers but in point of money there is no comparison to be made I could have got five times as much by putting cotton picking in the form of letters as I have from the book when day after day went by and you did not write I came to the conclusion that your high mightiness was standing on your dignity and then I was indignant too I can always be a great deal more angry with anyone than anyone is with me and I always will be and I said last week if he does not write to me by Saturday I will do something and what I did was write to Mr. Jackson now you will perhaps be vexed at this but you have no right to be do you think I am going to die and give no sign Mr. Jackson is an older friend than you I said an older soldier, not a better and then you did not write I did not mention your name nor say anything about myself or my affairs only asked some general questions I tell you this because your letter was good natured if it had been cross I would not tell you anything and if you will be as perplexed and uneasy for three weeks as I was and not do anything worse than that I will award you a gold medal Mr. Hunt, you ought never under any circumstances to be angry with me in your large circle of friends you may have scores who will bring you more personal revenue but for the quality of loyalty, pure and simple you will not find many who will go beyond me I may be in felicitous and inexplicable in demonstration but I was never anything but thoroughly true in mood the telegram came this morning in due season a thousand thanks for her kind remembrance but of course I was not going to Athens with your letter staring me in the face talking it over is the very thing I don't want to do there is nothing to be talked over there are the papers I admit them all but when Blank takes you to task for some misdemeanor and if ever you go to the good place it will be because that woman has pulled you through you don't say what are you talking about when I offered myself to you did you not say you would have me for better or worse and are you not perfectly satisfied she was satisfied then according to her likes but doubtless she has thought twenty times since she might have done better anyway you don't dast ask her and see now my case is not parallel England with all thy faults I love thee still I cannot conceive of anybody being a better publisher than you because you don't seem like a businessman but a friend but here is the fact that I want so much and I have only so much to get it with and sales falling off and I getting on what is sold less than an unknown author gets on his first book can you tell in a month whether the new book is going to sell or not I have another children's book nearly ready but I suppose decently demands an appreciable interval between the two issues do you suppose the unpopularity of my doctrines has anything to do with it if it has I will thunder them out harder still if I must go down I will go down like the Cumberland with a broadside volley of the books I want I don't know how many a dozen or two if people won't buy them I will give them away or read them they shall I will now close this short note with the reflection which I have often made be good and you will be happy and never bring up against me a concurrence of views at any past time as a fortification against discurrence in the present and if that is, like Saint Paul, hard to be understood good enough for you for not writing me sooner and throwing me into such a perturbation remember always the difference between the assent of indifference and the assent of conviction whatever I agreed to in times past was because I had no interest whatever in the subject and suppose it was all according to the law of the Medes and Parsons now that ruin gapes before me and I am, after all, only the law unto myself it makes no atom of difference to me that I have not been fighting you the last century steady while I am in a spasm of comparative serenity I will declare and affirm that you are and always have been one of the kindest brightest and most agreeable of men that you never said to me a word of compliment or silliness or impatience or anything that wounded me and heaven knows you have said bad things enough and this you may cut out and show to men and angels when we come to blows the worst thing I ever knew you to do was not answering my last letter and then aggravating me by coming down as breezy and cheery as if nothing had happened give my love to blank she deserves a better fate but I don't know that I can do alt to forward it Mr. Hunts replied to this letter was through another person in which reply the only response to my letter was I sent off my telegram with perfect unconsciousness of your state of mind or of the fact that there was any business unsettled which might be talked about your note last night was a surprise and your non-appearance a disappointment did you forget that a certain friend of ours cannot write a word with his own hand do you wonder matters having been many times explained that he thought they must sooner or later explain themselves through your memory we forgot how in a retired life things work in the mind and you must therefore forgive the apparent neglect of one who is overwhelmed by letters and people from days beginning to days end this reply was not soothing the suggestion that one is morbidly suffering mole hills to rise into mountains is not flattering to his intellectual caliber nor is it agreeable to be assigned to the part of one who had been so given to dissatisfaction that it was not worthwhile to try to quiet him again one thing I did learn from it that Mr. Hunt did not design to answer my question I nonetheless desired an answer I thought if I could not secure it perhaps someone else could Mr. Dane was an old friend of Mr. Hunts and a friend of mine his office was but a short distance from Mr. Hunts he had chance to write me some excellent advice about saving money just before without however any knowledge of this affair I wanted somebody's opinion and I could not talk about the matter I therefore wrote to Mr. Dane a letter of self-justification not to say glorification saying you think perhaps because I have once or twice lost a few things therefore I take no heed of anything on the contrary there is probably no one in the land who on the whole is more careful systematic and provident than I truth there is no such thing as independence or dignity scarcely honesty without money perhaps that is putting it a little too strong but at any rate impacuniosity is a constant temptation I should have more if I had had ten percent on the books as a segregational issue most said the other day was a custom for new authors I don't I have only fifteen cents on a two dollar book and ten cents on a dollar and a half book which is not nearly ten percent and if you can tell me any reason why I should not have as much as an un-fledged author I wish you would put up your patents and do it I want money just now extremely if I had a few thousand dollars I could benefit some very excellent person certainly and in all probability should lose nothing myself but in the course of a few years by the time I should want my money at least have it all back I can take up bonds to be sure and I rather think I shall but as a general thing one needs never to meddle with money that has settled don't you think I talk sensibly don't you take back your insinuations about my loose habits of expenditure unthrift reckless expenditure improvidence indicate an organic defective character but I will not sacrifice the present to the future the present the present is all thou hast for thy sure possessing whenever I see an imminent need I will not pass it by on the score of laying up for a rainy day for don't you see when the rainy day comes I may not be here to be rained on while to my friend the rainy day is already come I will enjoy money as I go along not in so reckless a way as to involve the necessity of one day imposing a burden upon others and of all enjoyment I know of none so delightful and inexhaustible and I may say so marvelous as to see the amount of relief the quantity of sunshine and help put into another's life by the judicious bestowal of even a very little money did you ever see such a letter as this it is full of me me me and me's money but you began it your letter came down upon me just when I have been full of perplexity for more than a month and you see I have not strength enough to keep myself to myself you will of course consider this all confidential you better make sure of it by destroying this letter as soon as you have read it yes by all means seems as if this letter was sort of virtuous but you know I am not virtuous at all and don't misconstrue me about the books Mr. Hunt has always been everything that was generous and friendly and I do not permit myself to admit for a moment even to myself that everything is not just as it should be but that paragraph in the S induced me to examine my own papers joined with my great longing for money just now and I did not and do not understand it happily it is not necessary I should perhaps that refers chiefly to the great Corinthian publishing houses letter Mr. Dane to MN ten percent was a fair amount I mean ten percent on the retail price for being H to pay you when they put their dollar books up to two dollars whether they should pay you the same percentage should depend on their profits and should be a matter of honor with them probably at first they did not double their profits with their price but now I have no doubt they do and more too still you are very much in their hands and it is very disagreeable for you to help yourself if the sale fell off with increase of price although the profit per volume was at the same percentage they would make less money by doing less business did you make any contract with them ever and what was it I don't believe anybody ever gets less than ten percent on the price but it may be on the wholesale price which is forty percent off the retail i.e. a book that retails at one dollar forty cent is wholesale at one dollar pardon me but I never imagine that a woman comprehends what percent means yes your principles are good but your practice is probably very deficient MN to Mr. Dane I am going to finish up my business now and then I shall not ever mention the subject again but I did want to talk with somebody about it having so little reliance on my own judgment and your letter came just then and so I wrote I have never mentioned it to another soul Confucius is a great deal better friend to me than you ever were or ever will be but somehow I could not speak to him about it I don't want to speak to anyone besides I was afraid he might take up against Mr. Hunt I have looked into my papers but I cannot make much out of them I never thought the first thing about it till I saw in the S what I told you before and I hardly thought of it then but several weeks after when I wanted money and my account for this year was less than I expected I hunted up the old S to see if I had read it right and then I wrote to Mr. Hunt without thought of there being anything wrong but asking him how it was I suppose that there was some modus operandi and wanted to know what it was nearly three weeks before he wrote again and then came a pleasant letter but all he said about mine was then follows an account of the correspondence now I must confess I feel next door to being insulted I hate to use the word but there it is Blank is as innocent and as good as an angel and does not in the least know what she is writing about but all that Mr. Hunt ever said to me on the subject or I to him did not occupy five minutes and he never spoke but once that was years ago it must have been before the second contract was made he said that owing to the fluctuations of the market the uncertainties arising from war or something of that sort they were going to give their authors a fixed sum fifteen cents per volume instead of a percentage it was at a time where prices of books were changing from one dollar and a quarter to two dollars but I don't know exactly when I ascended of course I neither knew nor cared anything about it I had no interest in it and that is all that has ever passed between us even now I have not the least fought to find if I am on the same footing as others but why does he not say so? do you think I am entirely unreasonable in being dissatisfied? I wish you would tell me if you think so for it is like death almost to think it possible that Mr. Hunt should be in the wrong I have had the most implicit confidence in him I like him so much that I hate to hear a word against the Adriatic or anything that he is concerned in I would have been delighted to write for him for nothing if he had needed the money and asked me Mr. Hunt's last letter to me by Blank was January 18th I did not reply to it and so the matter stands I shall never say or do anything more about it you cannot conceive how distasteful it is to me nothing in all my life, literary ever touched me so nearly if I had lost every speck of money that I had twice over it would not have so disheartened me confidence must be entire or it is nothing do not you ever speak to any one of this I shall never mention it a dead friendship is as sacred as a dead friend but if your dead friend will not rest quietly in his grave but persists in stalking up and down the earth scaring the timid, oppressing the weak and boasting all the time his own beneficence you must presently learn with Browning that even serene deadness tries a man's temper now I hope I have not overwearyed you with my tiresome letter you need not be afraid of a repetition of it in fact there is nothing more to say which you will perhaps think the strongest security of all I hope that you are good at least that you are content with nothing less than good which is the highest that any of us can go I fancy I think you had better burn this letter too it will be safest Mr. Dane to MN, February the 4th let us try your case by admitted principles in as much as you put yourself into Mr. Hunt's hands to do what was right he was bound to pay you as much as others receive upon whose winnings the same profits are made this is law, gospel and company if he did more it would be generosity if less, meanness or worse he agreed for 10% on the city lights and pays you 15 cents per copy which is exactly right if it retailed at $1.50 and it pays you the same on the rest to understand you whether he was reasonable in asking you to ascent to the 15 cents per copy depends on his sales if he was very small he would make less than if large I suppose you own the copyright but he owns the stereotype plates which cost the same whether many or few copies are printed if when paper and so forth increased in value he increased the price pro-rata and the sales continued the same he made a larger profit and should pay you more your percentage should continue as large now if he sends you proper accounts of the sales they will tell the story as to the number of copies sold but not whether they cost 50 or 100% more than formerly Jackson or any book publisher would know as to that it would seem that you have received the minimum price according to Jackson and the segregational issue most and my own notions your books are well printed on tinted paper and your notions may have abridged the profits I mean you may have acquired expensive editions more so than was profitable but I think not will you just show me your contracts and accounts of sales I am bound professionally to secrecy and my habits are fixed so that I tell nobody other people's affairs it is due to Mr. Hunt that you investigate the matter to some conclusion Mr. Hunt mistook your position your radius into his proposition and your confidence in him which rendered any sharp bargaining unnecessary on your part was interpreted as inability to comprehend matters of business and so they said you understood it once and will again when you are where you can be talked to you gave no heed to what was said and it is a waste of ink to write it all out but you and I know better your mind is logical and your simplicity as to business are sham MN to Mr. Dane thank you for your letter second I don't know whether the sales were large or small enormous I should say considering the quality of what was sold but I don't know what would be considered large as compared with other books I remember that the New Zealander a good while ago said that for any book not a novel five thousand was a success and I think all mine or nearly all have come up to that and some must have gone beyond it third I do not know who owns the copyright or the stereotype plates I never heard anything about either fourth I am perfectly willing to push the matter to any agreeable conclusion but suppose I inquire around among the publishers and find out that I've been underpaid or do I gain no money for that is all past and gone will it give me back Mr. Hunt does that strike you as sentimental it does me nevertheless that is what it means next it is very cool in you if the mercury is below zero when you have always been telling that a woman has no logic and that I have no logic and other similar endearments you turn around now and quietly speak of my logical mind as if you had been preaching it up all your life I knew it but it is a good deal to have you even indirectly confess it as for business if I choose to turn my attention to it I have no doubt I could master all its details just as I could in cooking but if you have a cook or a publisher for the express purpose of doing the business for you what is the use of perplexing yourself about it I am purporting to go to Athens next Saturday I will gather up my papers and take them to you if you will burden yourself with them but it is a thankless task but I really do not want to talk about it I had yesterday a hearty sort of letter from Mr. Hunt he says that an unusual interest ever since the day of publication of The Rights of Men was evident on all hands that elaborate newspaper notices have followed the book in a few showers and though business is singularly slow this season he thinks it will have a good sale he also says when you come again, remember if there are any business matters to be set right we are to do it then and when the juvenile book is ready pray send it or it will take some time to have illustrations made and we are even now preparing for autumn now that does not read like a man who is conscious of anything blame worthy it would be impossible he should go on talking as pleasantly and cheerly and carelessly as if nothing had happened if anything had happened doesn't it look so to you and why should it be Bromelin Hunt are famous for their generosity and liberality and what motive could they have in changing their course for me it seems to me like an ugly dream I wish I never had thought of it at all they could not have been any worse off and I might have been better Mr. Dane to MN you throw yourself unreservedly into the arms of your publishers few of us can safely be trusted so far Mr. Hunt has apparently given you the minimum share but I do not know even that and you don't without inquiry what I should do is this satisfy myself that he is probably keeping too large a share then say them frankly in what form you please that it seems so and ask him to explain as a business matter it is proper and between friends it is due to friendship what right have you to listen to the suggestions of the adversary and give your friend no hearing that you don't know much of your affairs as evident because you don't know who owns the copyright or the stereotype plates I do happen to know for I asked Hunt once if you retain the copyrights and he said you did the accounts which he should render you will show exactly the sales of course Mr. H will answer verbally your letter when you meet why not tell him frankly just as you tell me don't hesitate to let me do whatever you wish done only I don't want to be officious end of section 3 read by Angelique G Campbell December 2018 section 4 of a battle of the books this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org read by Angelique G Campbell December 2018 a battle of the books by Gail Hamilton declaration of war Mr. Dane at my desire and without mentioning any names went to several publishers in Athens and was told by all whom he saw that 10% on the retail price was the author's customary share of the profits he was referred to Mr. Campton of the firm of Murray and Elder as being the person who knew more about these things than any man in Athens Mr. C said the same thing I immediately wrote to Mr. Hunt February 11th in reply to the suggestion in your last letter that I should send my juvenile book I am forced to say what I never thought to say that I cannot see how it will be for my interest that you should publish any more of my books unhappily it is not necessary that I should give any explanation it is the reason if it do not exist to your own knowledge and by your own arrangement does not exist at all MN to Mr. Dane this you see is a little different from what I spoke of but what is the use of keeping up appearances if he has done what he seems to have done there is no possible way of getting over it and I may as well meet it face to face at once if he takes no notice of this note or if he asks an explanation I shall refer him to you and you may do whatever you think best if he thinks this an unfriendly course I think it is for him to show that any other way was possible certainly I tried hard enough to keep the matter between ourselves alone sometimes I feel indignant but somehow the uppermost feeling is a sense of loss there weighs upon me a burden as if some great calamity had befallen unless he may yet show something that has hitherto not appeared giving a new light MN to Mr. Dane February 15th Mr. Hunt shows an indifference quite in harmony with the theory that his friendship for me is founded on his business relations in fact it seems that business relations and friendly relations are like unimportant to him for he has taken no notice whatever of my letter of course I shall not be careful to preserve what he values so lightly yet I would rather err on the side of caution than of recklessness it is possible my letter may have been missent or that he is out of town of course when our breach becomes public it can never be healed and I therefore do not wish it to pass beyond us till there is no possibility of doubt I therefore will write another note and enclose it in this letter if you see no objection I would like to have you mail it to him in Athens then I shall wait one week more the week after that is the week commencing February 23rd I shall wish you to call upon Mr. Hunt and get all the money etc. of mine which he holds Mr. Dane to MN I am grieved and sorry with you at this thing I thought Mr. Hunt would hasten at the suggestion of any real dissatisfaction to satisfy you yours enclosing a note to him just came I know that suspense to you is very trying and I want you to do all that is possible to keep the trouble where it is and I would therefore have you send him the note which you enclose before you suggest me or anyone else as a disjunctive conjunction the note to Mr. Hunt simply said that I had received no answer to my last note indeed no answer was necessary but I should be glad to know he had received it and that as it was hardly probable two successive letters should go wrong if I did not hear from him I should assume that he had received both notes MN to Mr. Dane, February 19th no letter has come there is no use in waiting I do not understand Mr. Hunt's course nor do I care to understand it the more I think of it the more I am inclined not to have you do anything about the past let the dead bury their dead it will be only a disagreeable personal affair whose sole satisfaction will be the money it will in effect be arguing and claiming a greater value than he has set upon me for my part I would a great deal rather let it all go you just call and get the money that the account-sazes do make as much of a settlement as can be settled and if he chooses to let everything remain as it is I choose it also if he can afford to dispense with an explanation so can I I had given to Mr. Dane an order upon Mr. Hunt for what money of mine he had in his possession Mr. Dane called for the money on the 24th of February and on the same day but whether before after Mr. Dane's call I can only infer Mr. Hunt wrote to me Dear MN on my return home on Saturday I have found your note without a state informing me that you had received no reply to your note of last Thursday I have not replied to your note of February 11th because I could not understand the purport of it and hoped you might be in town soon to explain it in the last letter I received from you some days before the note referred to above written in the old friendly spirit and faith you tell me you have a juvenile book nearly ready and ask if it shall be sent for publication I reply please send it at once and then comes your note of the 11th instance with this passage in it I cannot see how it will be for my interest that you should publish any more of my books unhappily it is not necessary that I should give any explanation since the reason if it does not exist to your own knowledge and by your own arrangement does not exist at all now there must have been something in my note to you to which this note of February 11th is a reply which has offended you else why this sudden change from the sentiments in your long and friendly letter to those of the unhappy note of February 11th now pray let us understand each other and in all kindness I ask you to tell me the ground of your sudden dissatisfaction very sincerely yours are as hunt Mr. Hunt's ignorance in face of my letters his absolute inability to conjecture in what direction the trouble lay his misgiving that some unremembered a sentence in his letter had offended me seemed to me not a little remarkable I wrote again M. N. to Mr. Hunt my dear Mr. Hunt it is an unpleasant story to tell but since you desire it I will repeat it you recollect the letter I wrote you some time last December and the question I asked you in it the long and friendly letter of which you write told you of my waiting and of my writing to Mr. Jackson Mr. Jackson's letter confirmed the statement of the segregational issue most he said there is a custom of the trade which obtains for the first venue of an author unknown to fame to receive 10% on the retail price of the book after the first copies are sold as to the price per volume of M. N's works I should think 20 to 25 cents per volume would be the fair copyright sometimes a moderate copyright makes larger sales by enabling the publishers to give large discounts to the trade et cetera et cetera I still supposed to there was some good reason for my receiving a lower rate than any mentioned and in my long letter I tried to make clear to you the point of which I wished settled in your reply you said by E do you wonder matters having been many times explained that he thought they must sooner or later explain themselves through your memory we forget how in a retired life things work in the mind et cetera et cetera my memory is not want to play me false and so far from matters having been many times explained they have not been explained at all I have never so much assault any explanation until now never but once has the subject been referred to between us that was years ago soon after the publication of city lights and while prices were as yet unfixed you then said of your own accord that only to fluctuation of prices and general uncertainties you are making arrangements with your authors to pay them fifteen cents of volume instead of a percentage to this I readily assented all that you said did not take five minutes and all that I said did not amount to five words I had a great deal more faith in your honorable intentions towards me than I had in my literary power to serve you I had far more anxiety lest I should make you lose money than I had lest you should make me lose it I decided that if I were indeed brooding in a retired life of a trifle it was time to refer the matter to someone whose life was not retired and who was better able than I to judge I gave the whole matter to honorable Mr. Dane he made inquiries among the publishers without using your name or in any way bringing you in question and as the result of his investigations he reports ten percent on the retail price as the very lowest pay to the author one publisher told him that they considered a book that was not worth to its author ten percent was not worth publishing how then could I avoid the conclusion that you have been paying me all these years from one fourth to one third less the lowest market price for notwithstanding the fixed sum was to avoid a change change has not been avoided when a book was published whose retail price was one dollar and fifty cents the author's part went down to ten cents that is the author's price was fixed against a rise but flexible toward a fall is not this enough to explain my change of sentiment and my sudden dissatisfaction Mr. Hunt I cannot talk of this I have suffered a loss that money cannot measure nor words express the writing of this letter is the most painful work my pen has ever done my faith in you was perfect and my friendship boundless and it has all come to this thoroughly identified with you I counted your prosperity mine not a word of praise or censure was passed upon you that I did not feel had your needs demanded it I would gladly have offered twice and thrice and four times any reduction and have reckoned it only pleasure if I have failed to make anything clear you can refer to Mr. Dane no one but himself knows anything about it but how can it be kept longer and yet how can it be told when Mr. Hunt rendered my account and paid my money to Mr. Dane I felt that they had allowed ten percent on the new book rights of men Mr. Hunt did not reply to my letter but Sultan interviewed with Mr. Dane of which the latter gives the following account Athens, March 2, 1768 I have had a long talk with Mr. Hunt longer than I can write he asked me at first what you wished said he had a long letter from you referring him to me, etc I told him that it seemed to you as it did to me strange that while almost any other author was receiving ten percent on sales you were allowed much less and that that was what had not been explained he expressed all through the greatest regard for you and surprised that you should have so little confidence in him I told him that I should be very glad to be able to assure you that he had done everything towards you that his confidential relations required and then I felt sure it was best in every business point of view that he should continue your publisher he said your books are published more expensively than most books that a great deal has always been expended for advertising that it cost for instance one thousand dollars for one page of the Adriatic copies being printed that they employed one man on a year-less salary of blank dollars to attend to having their books properly noticed in the papers that all the machinery for a large sale is expensive that they make forty percent discount to the trade more on large orders that Mr. Somebody makes estimates of the actual cost of books published and submits them to him and did so with yours and so our fair price was fixed that you have made more out of the books than the publishers and that they could not and cannot afford to pay more than what has been allowed and upon my suggestion that more had been allowed on the rights of men he said that was a thin book and took but little paper and so cost less he says others will pay you much more for a single work in order to get you but things to style et cetera would not be satisfactory et cetera in short Mr. H claims that in all respects they have done their best to help you and to help you and to help you Mr. H said he was sorry you did not call as he suggested and talk about the matter that he should never cease to be your friend I wish you would tell her so that in your letter you had almost charged him with dishonesty which certainly you could not mean et cetera upon my inquiry he said they made less on the books at the present high prices but he gave me no special estimates he said he had arranged with all the authors at a specified price per copy but did not tell me what price as the interview was at his request I had no demands to make and could do little but hear him I told him I should write you today placing the matter before you as he presented it that I could not without inquiry say to you that I was or was not satisfied that all was right but should be very glad to see your pleasant relations continue and so it ended this explanation was not satisfactory if my books were published more expensively than most books Mr. Hunt should have told me before when the first one was to be published he asked what style I should like and suggested that of city curate I preferred Sir Thomas Brown he made no objection nor even hinted that it was more expensive than the other he wrote to me it will be a beauty and look like Sir Thomas Brown in its red waistcoat and again I am glad you like the costume into which we put your first form the following books were simply published in uniform style with the first and nothing was ever said about it between us as to the cost of advertising why should it cost him more to advertise than it did other publishers or more to advertise me than other writers what again had I to do with the cost of the machinery for large sales or with the rate of discount unless they were gotten up and arranged solely or chiefly on my account in that case I must indeed have been disastrous to my publishers for I cannot think my sales have been exceptionally large the reason alleged for the increased price allowed on rights of men seemed trivial true it was but a thin book and took but little paper and so cost less but it was not so thin a book as holidays on which they allowed me but ten cents while on rights of men accounted for after I had begun to look into the matter fifteen cents yet both books were sold at the same retail price one dollar and fifty cents rights of men was one hundred and forty four pages thinner than winter work one hundred and twenty three pages thinner than cotton picking ninety eight pages thinner than old miasmas those books were sold at a retail price of two dollars while this was one dollar and a half books they allowed me seven and a half percent while on this they allowed me ten percent but old miasmas is one hundred and fifty one pages thinner than city lights cotton picking is one hundred and twenty six pages thinner than city lights all three of the books are sold at the same retail price two dollars and on all three I was allowed but seven and a half percent that is while all goes smoothly a thinness of one hundred and fifty one pages is of no account it neither makes the price of a book less to the buyer nor the pay of a book greater to the author but when ripples began to rise a thinness of ninety eight pages makes the buyer's price less by fifty cents and the authors pay greater by one fourth thinness thou art a jewel one thing more as these books are published in uniform style if they are published more expensively than most books they must have been so published in the beginning therefore the relative pay of the author should then have been less but the first contract is made out according to the usual custom at ten percent on the retail price when the author was unknown and the sale uncertain he received ten percent after he became known and the risk one would suppose must have been diminished he went down to six and two thirds percent great is the mystery of publishing thinking it possible that smallness of sales might have something to do with it I wrote to Mr. Dane I can't tell a lie Pa I wish I was satisfied but I am not if Mr. Hunt had said this to me in the first place I dare say I should have been the best light in this that I asked him a question to which for three months he made no reply you asked it and he answered it once this however is a slight matter I can talk about it and scold him for it and without ever forgiving him live on imperfect good humor this matter and if this is all it is nothing but I cannot thoroughly feel that this is all and I cannot be the same without feeling so Mr. Jackson knew the style of the book so did Mr. Campton and they knew the expenses of publishing and if Mr. Hunt had so much regard for me as he thinks he had why did he let me go on making myself wretched for weeks when an hours time said everything at rest he who really regards me will regard my whims as well as my wants and this was not a whim either it was a sensible and natural question Mr. Hunt is mistaken in supposing I did not mean what I seemed to mean I did mean just that and if I had meant less I should have felt less I am not a simpleton to break my heart over a difference of opinion I did not think it necessary to apply to any others than Marsh and Mariaman and Mr. Campton if they think everything is as it should be then be it resolved that it is enough testimony is as good as a feast why should others pay me more for a single work in order to get me can they afford to pay me more than he but there is no good in talking upon uncertainties when we have found out any actual data we can cipher on interminably I trust you are pleased with the prospect I do not think it is of any use to stop here because inwardly I am no more content than I was to begin not so much in fact I am at one of those places where it is easier to go forward than backward from this point it is impossible to go back to where I was when I started having slept over it it occurs to me to say that I think you better see Mr. Campton and perhaps no one else I am afraid it will somehow get out Mr. Dane took my accounts to Mr. Campton and laid the facts before him making thus the matter personal for the first time he reported I have had a long talk with Mr. Campton and stated to him all that Mr. Hunt said as reasons for his course as well as what the book sales had been etc he says your books are not within his Murray's and elders usual line of publication but he knows all about them he says nobody would ask you to receive less than 10% on the retail price and any publisher Athens will give you more for anything you may offer and that now you ought to receive for all past sales at that rate on all the books and that you would be entitled to that even on a book where only 2000 copies sold Mr. Campton measured and counted the pages etc in your books and figured the cost and all the items and outside present prices it cost to compose and stereotype such a book $1 25 on a page or $500 for 400 pages that is the whole outlay for the plates ready to print after that the books costs all told say 52 cents per copy the publisher receives including what he retails and gives away an average of $1.20 per copy on the whole editions such books are 400 pages cost each copy paper and print work $0.24 binding $0.23 stereotype plates $500 10,000 copies each at 5 cents which totals $0.52 the retail price of $2 will take 40% off of that which makes $0.80 which leaves us with $1.20 now let us deduct that $0.52 for printed cost and that leaves us $0.68 of which the publisher has $0.53 the author $0.15 old miasmas has only $310 pages and so costs less by 25% Mr. C says the books can be made at 15% less than these estimates but he wanted to keep with them bounce the advertising etc are part of the usual machinery of all publishers he says B&H so far from making unusual discounts to the trade have recently published a list prescribing so little discounts that the trade are offended I also directed Mr. Dane to write to some of the Corinthian publishers to ascertain their custom he wrote to Paraville and Company and received the following reply Mr. Dane and replied to your favor of 18th beg to say that in the absence of any agreement we should pay to the author 10% on the retail price for all copies sold this on $2 would give the author $0.20 and $1.50 $0.15 per copy very respectfully be Paraville and Company my confidence in Mr. Hunter was lost and I was too much disheartened to do anything more close my connection with the firm so far as I could I wrote to Mr. Dane do not you be disturbed by this unhappy complication if you do I shall be desperate or a indeed there is nothing to be done between Mr. Hunter and me there is nothing between us worth preserving the case has been presented to him he is not inclined to do anything and I certainly cannot press him either he feels that he is right or that he is wrong if the former any proceedings on my part will only bring on active antagonism if the latter the consciousness of it is penalty severe enough to atone for all moreover so far as I am concerned no money could make amends for what it would cost me and in fact so much I think I rather enjoy losing the money too I would not see Mr. Hunter anymore let it all go end of section 4 section 5 of a battle of the books this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Phyllis Vinceli a battle of the books by Gail Hamilton chapter 5 skirmishing Mr. Brommel had written me some time before a letter on some business matter connected with his magazine The Buddhist asking I think for a contribution near the last of March I wrote to him saying that I wished to have my editorial name removed from the covers of the Buddhist not from any dissatisfaction with its management but from other causes that if for any reason it might be awkward for him to do it now I would not press the matter but wait his convenience I had no quarrel with Mr. Brommel my acquaintance with him was very slight I did not suppose he knew anything of my dealings with Mr. Haunt and I made no reference to them a few days after I chanced to see that my name with those of the other editors had already for the last two numbers been removed from the covers of the Buddhist and I wrote to Mr. Brommel again saying that if I had discovered that fact sooner I should not, of course, have written as I did he replied on the 31st of March I have been much away from my desk this month during an absence your letter with an enclosure or two came before I could reply I was again called away and just returning I receive your note of yesterday I wrote to you in the first place because I thought you really took an interest in the B as well as accepted its annual pecuniary recognition of your association with it and because since the completion of the first volume you had contributed but very sparingly to its pages had almost ceased even to send me good advice and better criticism I did not consider that you had broken off relations with our house in Toto just because you fancied another strong box more secure than ours or wished to try whether the Parvenu hawkers and peddlers of books could make the future of your literary life more pleasant and profitable than your past had proved by following the established routine of regular publishing I should have thought that I was doing you an injustice had I allowed myself to fancy that because you wanted to try a promising experiment you and ourselves were not to be considered as on terms anymore was I wrong but beyond this I thought that if any difference of opinion were to arise as to the proper earnings to be expected from your books there could be no question as to the return made by the B for the dozen or fifteen articles which you had contributed to it and that as you had sent but two papers to the volume of 1767 and none for that of 1768 there could be no faux pas in asking you to supply something again wrong a word as to the matter of names it was my intention to have no editorial names on the new cover as so much correspondence has been inflicted on the trio and as so many subscriptions have been sent to one or the other of them personally but by some blunder at the office the names crept on twice before I could lay them quite am I to understand that with the withdrawal of your name from the cover of the B you desire that your relations with MAGA shall cease and the allowance here to four made in return for your name and for your contributions which were originally expected to be monthly or when desired shall no longer be passed MN to Mr. Brummel your letter of March 31st is before me if you will be so good as to refer to my letter to which yours is a reply I think you will find a declaration to the effect that my wish to leave the magazine was not founded on any dissatisfaction connected with it I certainly meant to guard against of any such supposition on your part that I failed to do so I must beg you to attribute to inability and not to disinclination or indifference nor did your previous letter give me the faintest shadow of offence I was never otherwise then gratified whenever you asked me to write when you say your contributions were originally expected to be monthly or when desired do you mean to intimate that there was an agreement between us to that effect if so, permit me to say that such an agreement never existed Mr. Hunt came to me in Zoar with a request for service and an offer of salary which I felt obliged to refuse he then offered me per year for the use of my name as one of the editors and for such service as I chose to give the magazine he said they should be glad to have me write every month but I should be left absolutely free not to write at all I thought the sum all together too great for what I should be able to do and I was with the utmost reluctance and only after much urgency and because it was Mr. Hunt who urged it that I consented to the arrangement I made no promises but I determined in my own mind that I would send something every month and I satisfied my editorial conscience by carefully reading every number as it came out and noting its points as you perhaps have sometimes found to your sorrow or at least fatigue I did this for a long time every gap in the earlier numbers is owing to a story rejected or delayed by you not to any failure on my part to send you a story when I found that a paper would lie two or three months in your hands I thought it was because you had so much better things to print and I considered that I was doing you a kindness by not sending so frequently and therefore whenever you did ask me to write I took it as a compliment and was always pleased you cannot speak more disparagingly than I think of my actual services on the Buddhist but I could wish that your opinion had found an earlier expression permit me distinctly to say that until the reception of your last letter my relations towards you in connection with the magazine were always agreeable while my original scruples regarding the money value of such an editorial arrangement were long ago set at rest in the most conclusive manner by other publishers I do wish you to understand that I desire my relations with the magazine shall cease at the earliest possible moment that part of your letter which refers to my reasons for breaking my connection with your house it is impossible for me to characterize and equally impossible for me to reply to Mr. Brummel to MN April 4th I have your letter of the first instant and I thank you for it may I correct your slight misunderstanding of my position which I fancy I detect in your reply and for which I am doubtless responsible by reason of some ineffectiveness in my way of putting things my notion was that if your relation with the B had been agreeable and your work satisfactorily paid I should be sorry to lose you because you felt that you could publish elsewhere and otherwise to better advantage pray consider that you and I have only been in communication in regard to this magazine of the precise manner and nature of your dealing with our senior partner and other matters I of course can know nothing I can only receive the results I had understood on taking up the plan prepared for the B that its ostensible editors were to be regular contributors supplying for its pages articles whenever wanted even as often as monthly if I misapprehended the agreement with yourself you must excuse me and equip me of intentionally overstraining it I did use your articles slowly for the reason on the one hand that I seldom had by me more than one at a time and could not exactly count upon the receipt of another and on the other hand because I knew you to be busy on other things and hesitated to take from you time which you might prefer to use differently thinking that when you were moved to write you would do so believe me your letters of suggestion were always welcome and would still be so if anything in my last note which was somewhat hurried seemed to be cast in the form of a reflection upon you I hope that you will consider that I did not so intend it I have neither the right nor the desire to impugn your reasons for seeking another channel of communicating with the public than such as B and H have been able to afford and I do not think I implied anything to the contrary it is for you to make the best market of your writings that you can and although I may as well as any other publisher have my own view of what you should do and what should be done for you I am most far from wishing you to accept my view unconvinced and I do not even offer it therefore I honestly and earnestly wish you as thorough success as you can desire and I hope that after you have put other publishers to the real test not of telling you what their brethren ought to do but of themselves doing what they say should be done you will find as complete satisfaction from the general average of your next five or six years as I am inclined to think you might derive from a consideration of a similar period just ending sincerely yours H. M. Brummel Solomon in the enthusiasm of his love for his little sister conjures up quaint fancies to embody his ardent longings to lavish gifts upon her if she be a wall we will build upon her a palace of silver and if she be a door we will enclose her with boards of cedar so if this correspondence with Mr. Brummel were the sacred scriptures one would express his admiration by writing a commentary upon it his special appreciation would be given to the childlike innocence with which Mr. Brummel darts out of his path in pursuit of comirical beetles while admonishing me to remember that we are concerned with but a single bug nor would he refuse the need of one melodious tear to the naivete with which this complete letter writer in his first epistle lays bare the mercenary motives of his correspondent and in the second calmly affirms as a corollary to his propositions that he knows nothing about the matter we are all aware that men do speak unadvisedly with their lips but the unconscious sweetness of Mr. Brummel's admission is the peculiar gift of heaven to Mr. Brummel the learned commentator might not be able to throw any light upon the points which are obscure to Mr. Brummel nor can the impartial historian furnish any clue to the mystery of the strong box the promising experiment and the parvenu hawkers and peddlers so significantly mentioned the present writer has no information on these points and is inclined to believe that Mr. Brummel evolved them as the German philosopher did the camel from his moral consciousness but the question is not of sacred but profane literature and we will not darken counsel by words without knowledge until about the middle of March this matter had not been mentioned to anyone except Mr. Dane seeing the sea change into something rich and strange to which it was liable at the hands of the house of Brummel and Hunt I thought it might be well to give my own version of it and I spoke of it to some of those who were nearest me and learned as reported in a letter of April 18 Mr. Dane A was not much taken aback by the aspect of my affairs thinks they have only done by me as by others if one is up to such things he makes his bargains if he leaves it to them he gets theirs such as they are A has done just as I did never said anything about it and they pay what they choose what they choose is twelve and a half cents on a dollar and a half book and ten cents on a dollar and a quarter book he says he has made some inquiries and supposes he could get more elsewhere but oh he is rich B has ten percent written contract says D has the same E of his own accord told a friend of mine that he did not think B and H were good publishers for authors as they advertised so little and had no agencies for pushing sales I don't agree with that for I would much rather a book would travel on its own merits in fact I have always especially rejoiced in that attribute of B and H A says K is shrewd and he has no doubt he is well paid but what is the use of talking about it any more Mr. Dane to M.N to us mere mortals it seems as if you authors were as the countrymen told Arthur Gilman his lecture was plaguely kinder shallower that you should surrender yourself at discretion to some publisher is natural enough but that A should be systematically humbugged out of his dollars and have the credit which I and I presume mankind generally gave him for exacting so much for his copyright as to make the price of his epistles and things extortionate is as the man said of his wife's death ridiculous there is nothing in the last Adriatic but blanks poem tell him that the world thinks he imposes on us by making us pay a dollar and a half for his very thin books we suppose he gets their weight in gold per copyright end of section 5