’Artford, Hapril 19/81.
My Dear ’Owells—
Good idea! That is exactly what we will do: “leave the time blank.” That is sensible; I wonder you ever thought of it. If you were not married, I should believe you did think of it. Anyway, it is sound, it is wisdom.
I appreciate all you say, & sympathize with your dreads of manacles & fetters, & of speculative uncertainties. Therefore we will retrograde to the original proposition, & make it a distinct sum, $5,000, to be paid by me, whether the books succeeds or fails.
[Now if I do reach an agreement with the Osgood,]
This would leave you where you could back out, or die, without obloquy attaching to the act.
If God takes an interest in this Library of Humor (a thing which would make me feel a good deal set up, if I could really believe it & realize it, I can tell you,) he knows how big a book & how many volumes it will be, but it would be nonsense for the rest of us to try to guess, so early as this. I know this, however: if the work were to consist of 15 octavo volumes, the labor would amount to nothing—anything that was pretty good could go right in—there would be a sufficiency of room; but to have to sift & select for a mere pitiful one or two big volumes, that is work—& don’t you forget it. This latter is the very job that is before us.
Well, now, as follows is my idea: If I do succeed in agreeing with the Osgood, I will hire a capable man, at a good salary, to tackle libraries, catalogues, dictionaries of authors, &c., & make out an exhaustive list of ‸American‸ books & authors for us. If I can get the man I want (Charley Clark), it this will take him several months, for his main time will belong to the [Courant. When] Osgood shall have raked together the books in said list, Clark & I will sail in & read & select. By the time you are back from Europe, we shall be ready, no doubt, for you to go through our said stack of selections, & [knock] out, approve—& add to, too, if you want to. In this way you will be relieved of the realest drudgery of the thing. In a heaven of a hurry,
Yrs Ever
Mark
Textual Commentary
Source text(s):Previous publication:
MTHL, 1:363–64.
Provenance:
See Howells Letters in Description of Provenance.
Emendations and textual notes:
Now if I do reach an agreement with the Osgood, • [circled and then canceled with a wavy line, leaving the words legible]
Courant. When • ~.— | ~
knock • kn knock [corrected miswriting]
