Explanatory Notes        Apparatus Notes ()

Source: Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, N.Y ([NPV])

Cue: "Keep it diligently"

Source format: "MS"

Letter type: "[standard letter]"

Notes:

Last modified:

Revision History: Larson, Brian

Published on MTPO: 2025

Print Publication:

MTPDocEd
To Charles L. Webster
14 April 1884 • Hartford, Conn. (MS, in pencil: NPV, UCCL 02951)
Dear Charley—

Keep it diligently in mind that we don’t issue till we have made a big sale. Bliss never issued with less than 43,000 orders on hand, except in one instance—& it usually took him 5 or 6 months’ canvassing to get them.

Get at your canvassing early, & drive it with all your might, with the intent & purpose of issuing on the 10th 15th 10th (or 15th) of next December (the best time in the year to tumble a big pile into the trade)—but if we haven’t 40,000 order[s] then, we simply postpone publication till we’ve got them. It is a plain, simple policy, & would have saved both of my last books if it had been followed. There is not going to be any reason whatever, why this book should not succeed—& it shall & must.

If we make any change, it must be simply a change from 40,000 to 50,000 before issuing. The Tramp issued with 48,000.


Be particular & don’t get any of that old matter into your canvassing book—(the raft episode.)

Yrs
S L C

Susie has invented a musical game which we may perhaps publish, anonymously.


I think we’ll publish “1002,” anonymously, in a 15 or 20 cent form, right after Huck.

S L C
Textual Commentary
Source text(s):

MS, in pencil, Jean Webster McKinney Family Papers, Special Collections, NPV.

Previous Publication:

MTBus, 248–49; MTLP, 173–74.

Provenance:

see McKinney Family Papers in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.

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