細節
MELVILLE, HERMAN. Autograph letter signed ("H. Melville") to the publisher George P. Putnam in New York, written from Pittsfield, Mass., "Monday, 12th June," [1854], one page, 8vo, on pale blue faintly-lined stationery, integral blank leaf, two slight stains, red cloth folio folding case; in fine condition.
TERMS FOR ISRAEL POTTER
"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. Israel Potter was serialized in Putnam's from July 1854 to March 1855 and was published in book form by the firm later the same year.
Not in Letters, ed. M.R. Davis and W.H. Gilman, and APPARENTLY UNPUBLISHED. See Letters, no. 112, for a letter to Putnam dated "7 June? 1854" also regarding terms for Israel Putnam. Letters of Melville are rare.