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33.
Here is an agreement which embodies the terms in the old contract modified in accordance with the one or two points raised in your letter to me of February 3rd.
We will try to bring the book out in May.
By the way, the Irish compositors have not treated your dialogue in the conventional way: they have not put the various speeches between inverted commas but have adopted what to my mind is a very ugly, awkward arrangement of their own, which will act as a bar to the ordinary reader. I take it for granted that the usual method can be followed.
We will decide about the preface a little later. It is possible that the more important of the facts it contains could be incorporated in the introduction by another hand which I have in mind. It is Mr. Filson Young whom I asked if he would write an introduction as he had read the original manuscript and liked it. He replied that he would decide when he saw the whole book in our proof.
If you will sign the agreement and return it to me I will send you a
duplicate signed by this firm. Sincerely yours,
P.S. There is still one point that troubles people here: the suggestion
conveyed by what you say in your preface about the Dublin publishers
asking you to change all the names of public houses, restaurants, etc. And
they say, surely there must have been some reason for their burning of the
edition. However, you have assured me that there is no need for us to fear
any action for libel, and I am relying on your assurance.
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