GOOD HOUSEKEEPING

EDITORIAL ROOMS
W.F.BIGELOW EDITOR

119 WEST 40TH ST.
NEW YORK CITY

14 rue Oudinot, Paris.

February 18, 1919.

Mrs. Edith Wharton
Hotel du Parc
Hyères, Var
France.

My dear Mrs. Wharton,

A letter just received from my editor contains these
instructions:

"A few days ago Ray Long of Cosmopolitan told me that Edith Wharton's sister had just told him that when she left Paris a month or so ago Mrs. Wharton had a novel about half finished. Will you look her up and see what chance there is for this shop to see the novel first? Cosmopoliten would like a look-in at it."

Although I am on the staff of Good Housekeeping, in this case, I am speaking for Cosmopolitan when I ask if it can be arranged for them to see your new novel first, or if that is not possible, to at least have the "look-in" they want. If you feel that it is necessary to see me personally about this, I will come to Hyères.

Hoping that it may be convenient for you to send me an
early reply,

Paris, March 5th 1919

Dear sir,

Mrs. Wharton begs me to say that she
has received your letter of February 26th.

Mrs. Wharton received an application
some time ago from the Editor of the
Cosmopolitan Magazine enquiring if she
has a novel to dispose of and she replied
directly to him that had none.

Believe me,

Yours very truly

Secretary.

Sewell Haggard Esqr.

Hotel du Parc

Hyères, 20 Février 19

Dear Madam,

Mrs. Wharton asks me to say that she has received your letter enquiring about a novel which you have understood that she is writing.

Mrs. Wharton begs me to send you her best thanks for your inquiry, and to say that she has no novel to dispose of.

Believe me,

Miss C. Savage
14, rue Oudinet
Paris.

Hotel de Crillon
Place de la Concorde
Paris.

November 12th, 1933

Dear Mr. Burton,

Many thanks for your cable. I am glad you like "Kouradjine" as it was a great success among the two or three friends to whom I have read it.

Will you kindly let me know if you have any objection to its being re-published in an English magazine? Mr. Curtis Brown asked me the other day for a story for a new review (of which I forget the name) of which the first number is soon to appear, and in which they are trying to give work of a higher literary quality than that found in the ordinary picture-magazine.

The American magazines to which I have hitherto contributed have made no objection to my re-publishing in English magazines simultaneously with the American publication, or shortly after; but before handing the manuscript to Mr. Curtis I should be glad to be assured that you take the same view.

Yours sincerely.

Sainte-Claire le Chateau
HYERES

(Var)

20 April 1934

My dear Louis,

I was delighted to get your letter, but so sorry that the elements have been so cruel to your lovely terraces. It was a terrible winter in the north, but so far I have not heard of any far-reaching disaster at Colombe, though the news may be broken to me when I arrive in June.

However, since your pepinière contains all that is necessary to repair the damages, you are probably having much more fun replanting than if you had found everything in perfect order, and I will save my pity till we meet, and send you only my congratulations on the play and the four short novels. I cannot imagine how you combine so much literary industry with such social activity, but then I have not got a Mary and a Mr. Hawkins to sustain my fainting spirit,

I am dictating this letter because it is going to end with business, and it always seems to me that a business letter is easier to deal with in type.

I want your advice in a literary matter, and shall have to begin at the beginning to make it clear.

For years past Mr. Hearst has made vain advances to me. I have always refused to publish in any Hearst magazine, and have said so to his representatives in no measured terms. Last autumn, however, I had a note from a Miss Giles who said she represented Mr. Burton, the new editor of the Cosmopolitan, and that he had asked her to see me if possible on her way through Paris. I decided to hear what she had to say, which was as follows:

That Mr. Burton was well aware of my unwillingness to publish anything in a Hearst magazine, but that he wished her to tell me that Mr. Hearst had nothing to do with the policy of the Cosmopolitan, and that he, Mr. Burton, was trying to make it into a higher class review, and was particularly anxious to give it a more literary quality. He charged Miss Giles to offer me $5,000 for a short story, and $10,000 for a short novel (about 30,000 words), and to say that he would also be interested in a novel.

Sainte Claire le Chateau
HYERES
(Var)

- 2 -

As all my colleagues have long since given their literature to Hearst papers, and as I am in the same plight, financially, as everybody else, I decided to accept Mr. Burton's offer, and promptly sold him "Bread Upon the Water", the Russian story which you said you liked. As it was immediately bought for a film I assume that it had some success in the magazine.

At the same time when I saw Miss Giles I was just starting on a novel, but Miss Giles told me that Mr. Burton was particularly anxious to publish a series of 30,000 word story and that he hoped that I would give him one of the first. I had nothing about it at the time, for I was too much occupied with my novel, but early in February I received a cable from him urging me to give the short novel first. I enclose copy of this cable and of our subsequent exchange of cables. I replied at once, and to my surprise had an evasive cable from Mr. Burton.

However, I concluded that he wished to bargain with me and waited for his letter. No letter has ever come, and about a month ago I wrote to Jewett, of Appleton's, to call up Mr. Burton, and find out why I had no definite answer. I have just had a letter from Jewett, who says:

"I have written Mr. Burton and talked with him over the telephone. I have told him that you have received no letter from him, even if he sent one, and have urged him to cable or at least write you again immediately and make you some definite offer for novel and novelette -- if he means business. He now has the synopsis you sent me as well as the revised opening pages of the novel."

This leaves the situation unchanged, and leaves me wondering. Mr. Jewett wrote me some time ago that he was not surprised as in his experience "a matter is never closed with any Hearst publication until a certified check has been deposited".

Sainte-Claire le Chateau

HYERES

(Var)

- 3 -

What puzzles me is that Mr. Burton should have cabled
so urgently for the short story, and should now have faded away
without knowing anything more about the nature and quality
of the story than when he sent his cable.

I have interrupted my novel (of which I had written
about 30.000 words) to do the long-short story in response to
Mr. Burton's request, and I am
so few magazines care for 30.000 words tales, and mine is now
nearly done.

Do you know Mr. Burton, and what is your diagnosis
of the case? Mr. Jewett is evidently mystified, and I am
exasperated, as I tore myself reluctantly from my novel, and
have lost about two months in consequence. I should not bother
you with this if I had not embarked on writing a story of un-
usual length which it will not be as easy to place as a short
story.

Please excuse the length of my tale, and just drop
me a few words in reply, or ask Mr. Hawkins to do so. I feel
that, with your recent experience of the New York magazine
world, you will probably be able to advise me.

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Already done more than quarter new novel would interrupt
only if novelette proposal unconditional and price tempting
stop what limit delivery novelette

WHARTON

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Room N°

TEL SENLIS 309

PRESBYTERE ST ETIENNE
2 RUE ST ETIENNE
SENLIS (OISE)

Tuesday

Dear Edith; -

I am distressed to hear of your difficulties with the Hearst organizations. My only advice is the same that I suggested before. I think you should have a first rate agent in New York to look after affairs of this sort. Clearly you have all the right on your side and I think the difficulty is much more simple than you suppose. From the correspondence I cannot gather that Mr. Burton means to reject or overlook the 30,000 word story. It is just that he found another in the meanwhile to fill the gap. I know him and consider him perfectly honest and straightforward.. at least not more than usually shifty as editors go. However he is always subject to the sudden disconcerting and abrupt orders from above which the Hearst organization has a way of issuing.

In this case I think the best policy is to send him the story on the assumption that he ordered it in good faith. I rather think you should have done this in the first place without asking the intervention of Mr. Jewett. I know from talking to Burton and other members of the Hearst outfit how eager they were to get your work and I know also that they were delighted with the story you did for them, as they had good reason to be. In my judgment the affair seems to be a muddle rather than a case of broken faith.

But all this leads me back to the question of an agent. The power of an agent over editors is considerable and unless you yourself have the bargaining powers of an Edna Ferber I feel that they are extremely valuable. The question would never have arisen if there had been an agent in New York looking after your affairs. An agent such as mine knows every editor and all his foibles and does not hesitate to apply to screws either on the question of price or of contract. He has not only the prestige MEX behind him of the author whose interests he is representing but of all his other others as well. I find it quite impossible to cope with editors and picture people when I am so much away from New York. I am certain that Pinker who is my agent, would handle your magazine properties (horrid expression) for five per cent and your picture rights for ten. In both case you would profit considerably, not only in money but in peace of mind.

I have nothing to say MEX against Mr. Jewett--I do not even know him-- but I suspect that he does not much impress the

TEL SENLIS 309

the type of editor and picture people now in power. With my editors I maintain only an agreeable and sometimes boring social contact and decline, either in correspondence or otherwise to discuss contracts or business affairs. I simply take the attitude that I am an irresponsible artist and know nothing about money!

Unless you have in some way roused the wrath of the great God Hearst, which I think unlikely, I can see no reason to believe that there will be any eventual difficulty. I should send the long story over on the presumption that it has been ordered and must be accepted. But I do urge an agent upon you as a profitable arrange both economically and spiritually. With an agent this misunderstanding, or whatever it is, would never have arisen.

Incidentally I do not think you will find a long story difficult to place. I flatter myself that I managed to break down the prejudice myself through the medium of the Cosmopolitan and it is becoming quite the thing. They have found that readers prefer these novelettes in complete in this issue" to serials. That is one of the evidences of changing times and tempo. At any rate I'm sorry you've had this disturbing experience. I know how difficult it is to break off in the middle of something requiring sustained effort. If anything occurs in which I can be of use, don't hesitate to call on me.

Your letter didn't arrive on Sunday in the midst of a vast lunch. It came on Monday. Anyway we are doing our best to discourage the Sunday invasions.

We are awaiting your arrival with impatience. At the moment we are having perfectly vile weather, but I suppose weather is never right for a garden. I have typed this letter as George is engaged on typing a play. Hence the mistakes. The whole household joins me in sending affectionate greetings. As always affectionately

Nash's - Pall Mall

THE NATIONAL MAGAZINE COMPANY LIMITED

28 and 30 · GROSVENOR GARDENS · S.W.1

TELEPHONE SLOANE 4591

25th February 1937.

Mrs. Edith Wharton,
Sainte-Claire, le Chateau,
Hyères, (Var),
France.

Dear Mrs. Wharton,

I have just had a letter from Harry Burton, Editor of Cosmopolitan Magazine, asking me to approach you regarding a short story which he would like as one of a series of short stories he is planning to publish on various classes of people.

Since I was in Paris over last week-end he thought
that by chance you might be there and I could see you per-
sonally, but I learned at the Crillon that you were down at
Hyères and I was unfortunately unable to come down to the
Riviera. I am sorry that I did not have the opportunity
at this time to meet you.

Mr. Burton's idea is for a series of fiction stories by various people, each one taking one particular aspect of society - for instance, the "Intelligensia", the professional class, the working class, international types, etc. He would like to have you do a story dealing with to-day's "Ancestrals" - which I believe is a name that Maury Paul gives to the older American Society group, represented by the families of long standing prominence. He feels that only you can write of this group as they really are and he hoped that I could see you personally in order to suggest the idea more fully. However, I hope that this letter might be adequate since for the present I find it is rather difficult to get away from London.

Mr. Burton has not specified any time when he would want

April 26th, 1934

My dear Louis,

Thank you so much for your prompt and helpful letter
Since sending mine I have had another communication from Mr.
Burton, which deepens the mystery. Here is the text of his
cable:

"Dear Mrs. Wharton have sent letter to St Brice
explaining that it would be more desirable at this
time to get early delivery of your novel than to
work on novelette stop will you please cable me at
what date you expect to complete novel stop kind
regards. Burton?"

I am sure you were quite right in advising me to employ
an agent in future, and I did not follow your advice with
regard to the Cosmopolitan it is because Mr. Burton's re-
presentative came to me with a definite demand and definite
prices. I was ready to meet the demand, and the prices were
perfectly satisfactory; so that there seemed to be no reason
in this particular case to apply to an agent.

Now, however, unless Mr. Burton's letter contains a
definite offer I shall write to Mr. Jewett, and tell him that
I am going to try a professional agent. I am really disgusted
over the whole business, for in all my long literary experience
I have never been treated so casually before.

Ever so many thanks again, and my love to all the
family.

COPY of a letter from Mr. Richard Mealand, Editor, Nash's-Pall Mall,
28, Grosvenor Gardens, S.W.I., to Mrs. Wharton.

25th February 1937

Nash's Pall Mall
The National Magazine Company Ltd
28 and 30, Grosvenor Gardens
S.W.I. Tel: Sloane 4591

Mrs. Edith Wharton
Ste Claire le Chateau
Hyères (Var)

Dear Mrs. Wharton,

Since I was in Paris over last week-end he thought that by chance you might be there and I could see you personally, but I learned at the Crillon that you were down at Hyères and I was unfortunately unable to come down to the Riviera. I am sorry that I did not have the opportunity at this time to meet you.

Mr. Burton's idea is for a series of fiction stories by various people, each one taking one particular aspect of society — for instance, the "Intelligensia", the professional class, the working class, international types, etc. He would like to have you do a story dealing with today's "Ancestrals" — which I believe is a name that Maury Paul gives to the older American Society group, represented by the families of long standing prominence. He feels that only you can write of this group as they really are and he hoped that I could see you personally in order to suggest the idea more fully. However, I hope that this letter might be adequate since for the present I find it is rather difficult to get away from London.

Mr. Burton has not specified any time when he would want such a story delivered but he hopes to start publishing the stories in this series as soon as he can. The length he leaves to your own decision, and, of course, the price will be in accordance with prices paid to you previously.

I do hope that you will be able to do this. If there is any further information that I can give you about it, please let me know.

March 6th, 1937

Dear Sir,

Mrs. Wharton asks me to acknowledge your letter
of Feb. 25th, respecting a short story dealing with an
old New York family for Mr. Burton.

The disposal of Mrs. Wharton's magazine and
serial publications is in the hands of Mr. Eric Pinker,
and she has written to him to deal with the matter for
her.

With her best thanks,

Believe me,

Yours very truly

Secretary

Richard Mealand Esqr