Item Info

Accession Number: 87-287
Physical Description: [4] pages
Transcription:

Gad's Hill Place
   Sunday Sixth September 1857

My Dear Evans
    I am very glad to get the accounts, and I think they come out very well indeed.
    The payment of £1000 on the 16th, and of the remaining £1, 317.11.1 on the 16th of next month, will suit me quite well. 
    You do not mention whether you have yet done anything with Collins as to the Dead Secret, and £200 bill. I want to set the latter against Walter's outfit: to say nothing of the improvements of this place, and the Well - into which last-mentioned gulf, a good deal of ready money has fallen.
    It is clear that we ought to republish the Child's History. In estimating and considering about that, during the next ten days or a fortnight while I am away, I wish you would also give your thoughts for a little while, to the following kindred subject.
    Forster has a strong impression that my copyrights are not turned to anything lie the account the time demands; and he sets particular store by the fact that there is no good edition of them for the better class of readers who would buy them for well-furnished bookshelves. I did not at first take his view of the matter when he propounded it to me, but I have gradually come to the conclusion that he is right; and not only that there is money to be made, but that good is to be done, to the place and station (so to speak) of my writings. The question is, in what form, and at what price, and how as to periods and regular intervals, such an Edition could be best devised. It might comprise a selection from the original Illustrations ( a few of the best of them), or it might have none. It should be handsome to look at, and easy to read.
If you could make a good project on paper, I have no doubt Chapman would be very glad to jump at any reasonable proposal I might make to him. The result might be very beneficial to all of us, and the course of such an issue of my books, would keep me well before the public, without wasting me - which is a consideration, with an eye to the future.
Now supposing you able to knock out a scheme which we could settle in a careful interview when I come back, I would not let the grass grow under the plan, but would work Chapman directly, so that we might begin before Christmas.
But this will not interfere with our republication of the Child's History, which as a Child's book, is still to be considered by itself.
I shall be glad to hear what you think of this notion, and will beg Wills to let you know (when I know, myself), where you can write to me at the end of the week.
Faithfully Yours always
Charles Dickens
F. M. Evans Esquire

MssDate: Sunday Sixth September 1857
Media Type: Letters
Source: Rare Book Department
Recipient: Evans, Frederick Mullett, 1803-1870
Provenance: Elkins, William M. 8/5/47

Bibliography:

Volume 8, pp. 436-437, The Letters of Charles Dickens, edited by Madeline House & Graham Storey; associate editors, W.J. Carlton…[et al.]

Country: Creation Place Note:Gad's Hill Place
Country:England
City/Town/Township:Higham, near Rochester

Call Number: DL Ev15 1857-09-06
Creator Name: Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870 - Author