1349
June 19th 1918
Dear Mr. Joyce
Many thanks for your letter. I had hoped there would have been
something definite to say before this as to the appearance of your novel
Ulysses in the form of a supplement but the matter is still
unsettled. Unfortunately Mr. and Mrs. Woolf came to the conclusion that
the printing of a book of
approximately the length of your first novel would be a greater undertaking
then they could manage, unaided, on their small hand press. They said it
would take them quite two years at the rate at which they work. They
would have liked to do it as they were very much interested in the first four
episodes which they read.
[1] I am now
waiting to hear the decision of the firm that printed your other novel but I
am not altogether hopeful. If they agree, or if some other firm is found
willing to print the supplement,
[2]
there will be no loss on the book because the extra expense of the the
supplement will be offset by the fact that the type will have been set up and
therefore your very kind proposal that the money paid for serial rights
should be considered as an advance on royalties ultimately due is not one
that could with any fairness be taken advantage of. And there is no other
novel that we would like to print as a serial in
place of yours.
[3]
The
Egoist will be reduced in size by four pages which the supplement
runs — it has in fact been reduced already. I wrote to your American
publisher with your message.
[4] Mr.
Pound has sent his copy of the typescript to America and the book started
in the
Little Review for March. I hope all will go well with
the
writing of the rest of it. It is not tiresome to me to hear how your book is
written: I like to hear it.
[5] The sales
of the second edition of your other novel are poor, I am sorry to say.
Probably the six months' interval was bad for the book. You made a kind
proposal in a former letter that the terms of our contract should be modified
in view of the increased cost of production.
[6] I would suggest therefore that the
royalties be paid only on the copies sold and paid for and not also on those
supplied but not yet paid
for. So far, of 113 copies ordered and supplied only 40 have been paid for
to date. It would be nice if the "four thousand" Mr. Pound talks of so glibly
were a fact. I sent a copy to Mr. Courtney
[7] some weeks ago. I think Mr.
Davray will
review the book soon. I shall send
The Egoist to the
Museums:
Gesellschaft at Zurich and must thank you for having spoken to the
chairman about the journal. I am glad to hear that Messrs Crès
[8] have sold their copies of your
book. I
wrote to the three subscribers you obtained to know if they would prefer me
to pass on their subscriptions to the
Little Review owing to
the
delay over
Ulysses. Mr. Semper has made his up to the
amount
and I have just sent it in to Mr. Pound. The other two have not
replied.
I am sorry that you have been threatened with trouble in your eye
again and hope that the symptoms came to nothing. | With kind regards |
yours sincerely
