44.
1925:
Rapid City, Man. April 3, 1925
Dear Phelps,
With regard to M. & S. it is all off. I should not trust
them across the road any longer, as the saying goes. They
have two of my books and I believe, are making 'a good thing
out of them'. But that is all they are going to get without
litigation.
I am dispatching a letter to Pierce, withdrawing my former
offer. Or perhaps I should not say withdraw. I am sorry I
did not take a copy. I am proposing to him an alternative
between two plans. EITHER, I print in the U.S.A. , thus securing
copyright there; and the Ryerson people handle the book,
OR, They print and handle the book; and I guarantee a sale
of perhaps 1000 copies within one year from date of publication.
In other words, I am back exactly where I was at Christmas.
I have no Ms. here, which fact prevents me from reading the
thing over, and, therefore from burning it. But what is the
use of storing useless Mss.? I have, during the last few
days, burnt quite a few. I must say that I am despondent
about the whole thing and wish I had never started publishing.
I don't see that you can do anything with regard to Pierce.
But if you think you can, be sure of my sanction. If you
want to do so, there is, of course, a certain amount of hurry.
For I wrote to Pierce that I expect wire answer to my letter
and that I want to proceed to Winnipeg to print unless we
come to some very definite agreement. I shall give him time
to make up his mind, let me say, till the end of next week.
After that I want to do either one thing or the other. I
wired him more than a week ago asking for my Ms. by return
mail; but he simply ignores me, it seems. Before I invest
my own money in the venture, I want to read the thing over
and see what I think of it. But he simply doesn't give me
a chance. You see, my estimate of any piece of writing naturally
changes with a new piece of writing on which I am engaged.
And I have no idea that, measured by the standard of "Equal
Opportunities" the W.R.L.H. isn't much. However, no reason
to worry. I am going to Sask. In summer and may stay there
teaching a rural school for a change. Once I am in that sort
of thing, I shall not bother much about my writing any longer.
Unless, of course, I say good-by to this world before that;
and spring is exceedingly hard on me this year. Beginning
of this week it came to the point where I had to call the
doctor in after midnight, in almost immediate expectation
of a final moment. He gave me three normal doses of hypnotics;
and I did not sleep, though my nervous system was so depressed
that the agony was over.
I shall speak in Brandon on May 13, invitation of the Kiwanis
Club; and again in June. Topic 1: "Novels"; topic 2, "The
Rural Problem". I shall send you copies of the talks. I believe
they will be good, better at any rate than what I gave in
Winnipeg . I always need lots of time.
Well, so long. If I go to Winnipeg at Easter, I suppose
I shall see you. Mrs. Grove would be with me since she looks
forward to the extraction or excavation of a newly grown
wisdom tooth which throws whole works into disorder,
Yours,
F.P.G.
