Hartford Feb. 26/84.
My Dear Howells—
Ah, what the reader puts into a letter, that is what said reader finds in it! There couldn’t have been any irascibility in my letter, for the reason that there wasn’t any in me.
I’ve been inquiring into dramatic royalties. Peck gets 5% of the gross on his “Bad Boy.” There are 3 companies playing it, & his daily return averages $65 from each—about $1200 a week, total. And by jings, every time he gets $1200 profit, the other party gets $12,000. This is a trifle disproportionate, it looks to me.
Mallory wanted the Sellers play again, & has got it. I’ve no faith in his being able to find the right man for it, but let him try—there’s no harm in that.
Yrs Ever
Mark.
Have you blocked out the Sandwich Island play yet? I’m mulling over that old sea-captain in my mind, but I don’t exactly see how to get him in. In my mind, he is a bachelor (as the real man was—Capt. Smith of New Bedford & Honolulu,) & the heroine is a half-white, & his adopted child.
Mark.
(Smith is a kind of Captain Wakeman.)
Source text(s):Previous publication:
MTHL, 2:476–77.
Provenance:
see Howells Letters in Description of Provenance.
