64.
1925:
Rapid City, Man. November 13,
1925
Dear Phelps,
Am in bed with the grippe and had a bad day.
This is why I write.
Pierce writes me a
rather disagreeable letter, as if he was blaming me for the
downfall of the book. R.L. & Co.
took only 100 copies, he says, instead of the promised, much
larger, number.
He also says, I am to get after the bookseller
in my home town: Well, I have expressly warned him not to
let the book fool about on his counter as he has done in
times past.
Pierce says, "Our wholesale department has
been much disconcerted by the Free Press Review. They had
put all their pressure behind your book considering it to
be one of the best of the season. The whole west is a disappointment," etc.
etc. [Apparently the F.P. review has convinced that wholesale
dept that "Settlers" is no good]
Well, I can't help that. I did not use my persuasion to
make them take the book. In short he has "cold feet" - to
use the abominable phrase.
But what am I going to do about it? What
is the use in his telling me? Let him get busy and sell the
book if he can - I
am very sorry he took it. Because I might have it printed
by this time as my own property. This sort of thing merely
discourages me and makes me sick. I won't answer his letter,
because if I did, I'd tell him things which would cause a
break. F.i., my contract calls for the appearance of the
book end of August: it appeared end of October: that's why
it clashed with Wild Geese which is taking the wind
out of its sails.
I feared something of this sort all along. It would have
been too much to expect that things would go smoothly and
a couple of thousand copies were sold - which would have
netted me only $450.
Tonight I had another letter from Harper's,
saying "Our
book dept would be most happy to consider the Ms of a novel
of yours". But they decline to consider a short story which
I specially adapted for them, on the plea of its length (20,000
words). Sh[?] ... ask me to submit stories of from 4000 to
7000 words. So [they are [?] always pulling at cross purposes - I
will not allow "trash" to appear under my name. As for the
novel they ask for, I have none at present. I have taken
the Daily
Bread to pieces and am refusing [to ... ?] that
will take me months and months. But I am determined to [...?]
to them, whether it pleases Pierce and Doran or not. Most
[...?] however, when they read it, they will decline.
And that will be my last effort. Next summer
I am going to go back to some school, I suppose.
Excuse all this scribbling. But if I were
not sick, I'd have taken the train to Winnipeg to talk it
over, instead of sitting here and worrying, when I could
avoid all worry by not publishing.
Yours,
F.P.G.
