SUPERB H. G. WELLS LETTER ON PUBLISHING ISSUES AND RECEIVING PAYMENT FOR: KIPPS ALSO MENTIONING WAR OF THE WORLDS, MANKIND IN THE MAKING, AND THE FORCE OF THE GODS

WELLS H.G.  (1866-1946)  English writer, remembered for his science fiction novels. Exceptional Autograph Letter Signed, “H. G. Wells”, four full pages, octavo.  On his embossed “Spade House, Sandgate (Kent)” stationery.  25th June 1904, to [John] Brisben Walker.  Some light age wear, with traces of former mounting, else very fine condition.  A wonderful Wells letter wherein he expresses his regret at a misunderstanding that has arisen between his correspondent and an individual named Parker (apparently Wells´s American agent), for “Kipps”, [often stated as his personal favorite work].  He writes: 

 “I regret very much this misunderstanding between yourself and Parker.  It is my opinion that an author should give his mind to his writing and not to the details of publication and so forth, and so I have done my best to keep clear of these complications.  Throughout however I feel that there must have been a misconnection in the matter of “Mankind in the Making” for example, which, cut up as it was, was neither good for the Cosmopolitan nor myself. I understood from Parker that you had agreed to buy all my output for the period (with the right to sell it again) covered by the agreement between us. Was this not so? If it was, were you under any misconception as to the nature of that prospective output? I have an idea that you must have been. If you were, I am anxious to put things straight between us. In matters of corn and pork and such like commodities a bargain is a bargain, but if you were under the impression that what I was writing was all matter after the style of The War of the Worlds, it is natural that you should regard Kipps as not after the sample.  I am disposed to relieve you of Kipps altogether, but I understand form Parker that that alone is not all th trouble.  There is, I understand, a considerable sum due to me upon what has already been used in the Cosmopolitan. I do not see what this has to do with Kipps, and I find some difficulty in discussing Kipps with this other issue unsettled. Were all the prior matters closed I would at the present moment write and cancel our agreement as far as Kipps is concerned. But of course if some detestable hitch is to arise about all that other money, I suppose I must also press my claim in the matter of Kipps.  Frankly the whole of this matter is unsavory and uncongenial to me. I dislike the idea of forcing my writings upon anyone who does not want them and I hate the spirit that has come into all these transactions. In the past I have been crudely victimized by both editors and publishers, or I should not have Mr. Parker entering between editors and myself. Even now, if I may do it without prejudice to any subsequent negotiations and proceedings, I will, say, make a full and complete settlement for “Mankind in the Making” and “The Force of the Gods” and I will take back Kipps. In the future I shall take care that Mr. Parker concludes no bargains except for work finished, done and shown. It is the selling of unwritten books that lies at the root of all this trouble.”

 

A letter of truly fine literary content illustrating the dilemmas Wells faced with editors and the publication of his work.  They don’t get much better than this! 

                                         

$7500.00                                                            

 

John Brisben Walker (1847-1931) American magazine publisher and automobile entrepreneur who owned the Cosmopolitan from 1889, transforming it into a literary magazine. Today the magazine exists as a quarterly fashion and entertainment magazine for women.

Wells´s science fiction novel The War of the Worlds was first serialized in America in Cosmopolitan magazine in 1897, before being published in book form the following year. Of the other works Wells makes reference to in the present letter, it is perhaps Kipps that is most famous. Wells had worked on the novel for seven years and completed the manuscript as it now exists in May 1904, the month prior to writing to Walker. Although Kipps eventually became one of Wells’s most successful novels, at first it was slow to sell. While 12,000 copies had been sold by the end of 1905, more than a quarter of a million had been sold by the 1920s.