.jpg?w=1)
Herman Melville, 12 June [1854]
Details
On payment for Israel Potter
Herman Melville, 12 June [1854]
MELVILLE, Herman (1819-1891). Autograph letter signed ("H. Melville") to the publisher George P. Putnam, Pittsfield, 12 June [1854].
One page, bifolium, 190 x 125mm (contemporary ink smudges, faint toning toward lower margin).
Melville negotiates terms for Israel Potter with his publisher. "Yours of the 10th [of June] is received. Tho' I should have preferred receiving the $100 at once, yet I am willing to consider the arrangement as closed, conceding to you the refusal of the privilege of subsequent publication of the story [the novel Israel Potter] in book form. The 12 1/2 % however, I should prefer half-profits. There may be no difference; but 12 1/2 % does not seem much..." Melville closes by acknowledging receipt of payment for his story "The Lightning-Rod Man" for Putnam's Monthly Magazine (miswriting "L.R.R." rather than "L.R."). Israel Potter was serialized in Putnam's from July 1854 to March 1855 and later the same year, Putnam availed himself of the "privilidge" and published it in book form, but "evidently chose not to change the terms of payment from twelve and one-half percent to half-profits…" (Horth). Putman's ledger evidently showed that he paid Melville "eighteen dollars for the three page piece in August … it must have been that payment which was advanced to him in June, perhaps in an effort to offset the Putnam decision not to advance Melville one hundred dollars for Israel Potter" (Ibid). Published in Horth, p. 265-266. Provenance: Samuel T. Freeman, 19 February 1941, Lot 274 – Pierre S. Dupont III (his sale, Christie's, New York, 8 October 1991, lot 174).
Herman Melville, 12 June [1854]
MELVILLE, Herman (1819-1891). Autograph letter signed ("H. Melville") to the publisher George P. Putnam, Pittsfield, 12 June [1854].
One page, bifolium, 190 x 125mm (contemporary ink smudges, faint toning toward lower margin).
Melville negotiates terms for Israel Potter with his publisher. "Yours of the 10th [of June] is received. Tho' I should have preferred receiving the $100 at once, yet I am willing to consider the arrangement as closed, conceding to you the refusal of the privilege of subsequent publication of the story [the novel Israel Potter] in book form. The 12 1/2 % however, I should prefer half-profits. There may be no difference; but 12 1/2 % does not seem much..." Melville closes by acknowledging receipt of payment for his story "The Lightning-Rod Man" for Putnam's Monthly Magazine (miswriting "L.R.R." rather than "L.R."). Israel Potter was serialized in Putnam's from July 1854 to March 1855 and later the same year, Putnam availed himself of the "privilidge" and published it in book form, but "evidently chose not to change the terms of payment from twelve and one-half percent to half-profits…" (Horth). Putman's ledger evidently showed that he paid Melville "eighteen dollars for the three page piece in August … it must have been that payment which was advanced to him in June, perhaps in an effort to offset the Putnam decision not to advance Melville one hundred dollars for Israel Potter" (Ibid). Published in Horth, p. 265-266. Provenance: Samuel T. Freeman, 19 February 1941, Lot 274 – Pierre S. Dupont III (his sale, Christie's, New York, 8 October 1991, lot 174).
Brought to you by
Heather Weintraub
Specialist, Books, Manuscripts, & Archives