CHATTO & WINDUS

Partners: HAROLD RAYMOND I. M. PARSONS

40-42 WILLIAM IV STREET, LONDON, W.C. 2

Telegrams: BOOKSTORE, LONDON

Telephone: TEMPLE BAR 0127/9

PUBLISHERS

HR/EN

22nd June, 1944.

My dear Norman,

I tackled Penguins on the points you raised and quoted your actual words - 'I think five years should mark the limit of their licence and that I should reserve the American rights'.

Rather to my surprise they agreed, or perhaps I should say more correctly, they think they have agreed. Anyway, they send the contracts back revised, as you will see, with a remark that they have altered it 'in the way he has suggested'. The alteration regarding the U.S.A. 'is of course all right. But clause 11 does not mark five years as the limit of their licence. On the other hand, it would enable you to secure the reversion of the rights even a year or two after publication, unless they propose to keep the book in print and consequently earning further royalties for you.

Would you like me to tackle them again, or shall we leave it as it is? It all depends how attractive the fifty quid may be. Personally, I have rather a feeling that if we bung the contract back to them once again, they might drop the whole project.

Norman Douglas, Esq.,
7, Southwell Gardens,
S.W.7.

CHATTO & WINDUS

Telegrams: BOOKSTORE, LONDON

Telephone: TEMPLE BAR 0127/9

PUBLISHERS

HR/EN.

9th June, 1944.

My dear Norman,

Many thanks for the list of corrections in
TOGETHER, which I will hand on to the Penguin folk.

With regard to the length of their licence, you
will see that the enclosed printed form, which they have
signed and sent me for signature, provides for a licence
for an indefinite period, except that if they let the book
go out of print five years after it is first published in
Penguins, the rights revert on six months' notice. I have
not yet signed this contract, as I was waiting for your
corrections, so there is still time to withdraw. This,
however, is their ordinary printed form and I am convinced
that they would not stand for a three-year licence;
especially as two or three years may elapse before they can
put the book on the market in the present paper shortage.
This, of course, makes it more important, from your point of
view, that the advance should be paid on signing the
Agreement. Would you let me have the contract back with
your comments?

Moving around must certainly be a bore, but I am
very glad that the new quarters are comfortable.

Tel: WES.7578

7, Southwell Gardens,
S.W.7

8th May 1944.

Harold Raymond Esq.,
40, William IV Street,
W.C.2.

My dear Harold,

Many thanks for yours of the 2nd and 5th. You
will see that I have changed my address again - a troublesome
business.

As to the Penguin *Together*: why, of course; though
I should have preferred - who wouldn't? - your elegant Phoenix
reprints, which have no mistakes that I can discover. Anyhow,
it is most kind of you to suggest my receiving 100%, and I
am ever so much obliged to you.

There are three things to note. Would they be prepared
to make about twenty alterations in the text, mostly misprints,
of which I could send them a list *via* yourself? I should like
the text to be as correct as I can make it; and so ought they.

Secondly, they must reprint your index, otherwise I
should not like them to do the thing at all. That is quite
a small matter, and to change the pagination of the index-items
would be about an hour's work.

I should also like to see the proofs. I did not see
those of the "evergreen" *Alone*, and it turned out a deplorable
production.

There ought to be no difficulty about this, ought
there?

Yours always,