FPK to Mr. Greenlet, April 22,1920
Dublin Core
Title
FPK to Mr. Greenlet, April 22,1920
Description
Lady Blanche Farm
Source
The collection of Frances Parkinson Keyes Papers, Special Collections, University of Vermont Library
Date
1920-04-22
Contributor
Melissa Beckett
Format
Copy of typewritten letter
Type
Document
Coverage
American Northeast
Document Item Type Metadata
Text
2400 Sixteenth Street,
Washington, D.C.
April 22, 1920.
My dear Mr. Greenslet,
I very seldom do things in a hurry, and today something happened that made me realize that I mustn't let it stay there any longer, and I took it out, with the intention of sending it off to New York. But instead of doing so, I've put it back again, and have decided to write to you about it first.
Please don't think I'm conceited when I tell you that, in a literary sense, I've had a rather successful winter--much more successful than I ever dared to hope. Everything I've written has been accepted, everything that's published seems to have been liked, and now I've more orders ahead than I can possibly fill this summer. One rather important piece of work was entrusted to me, and has turned out so well, that I've been asked to undertake others. I can't, if I'm to keep on with these essays, etc. at the rate as which I can dispose of hem, write another novel for a year at least. And yet it is stories that I really love to write best, and it is a story- a farm story, on the order of "The Old Gray Homestead" that everyone I see and hear from is clamoring for. By everyone I don't mean the editors-I want to be perfectly frank- but the public generally. And by "everyone" I don't mean just the old friends at home who were sure to like anything I wrote when that first book came out, but a very different and a much larger public-though it includes those old friends, to that I couldn't count on, a year ago, to want a single copy of anything I wrote- and to whom I feel it tremendously important to respond while there is this demand. I can't go into all the details of why it exists-there seems to be a good many reasons. And I can't- I realize this, too- except you to take my word for it. But I wonder if you would? I don't need to have you tell me a second time that "Lady Blanche Farm" wasn't just what you wanted- if it had been, you wouldn't have sent it back to me. But is every story you public? In rereading the letter with which you sent it back, I gather that you didn't dislike it, that indeed you came very near taking it, that some of the members of the firm thought it should be taken, though I have not the faintest idea which ones wanted to keep it, and which ones thought it should go back. And in view of all this, in view of the fact that I should for many reasons- both present and future- for don't forget that I'm just beginning, that ten years from now I'm hoping to be leagues further on- be very sorry to break with you entirely and start off with a new publisher- I'm writing to ask you if you would reconsider your decision? If you would take "Lady Blanche Farm" and publish it in the fall, advertising it well, but not paying me one single cent for it until it had begun to pay you-that is to say, I suppose, until it had at least passed 50000 copies in sale?
I suppose you will say "no", and then I shall be very sorry and very chagrined to have written you about it- and yes, I couldn't seem to help it! But if you say "yes" I give you my word of honor that you won't be sorry, now and that by the time the third book- "The Safe Bridge" comes along, you'll be glad!
Sincerely yours
Mr. Ferris Greenslet
Boston, Mass.
Washington, D.C.
April 22, 1920.
My dear Mr. Greenslet,
I very seldom do things in a hurry, and today something happened that made me realize that I mustn't let it stay there any longer, and I took it out, with the intention of sending it off to New York. But instead of doing so, I've put it back again, and have decided to write to you about it first.
Please don't think I'm conceited when I tell you that, in a literary sense, I've had a rather successful winter--much more successful than I ever dared to hope. Everything I've written has been accepted, everything that's published seems to have been liked, and now I've more orders ahead than I can possibly fill this summer. One rather important piece of work was entrusted to me, and has turned out so well, that I've been asked to undertake others. I can't, if I'm to keep on with these essays, etc. at the rate as which I can dispose of hem, write another novel for a year at least. And yet it is stories that I really love to write best, and it is a story- a farm story, on the order of "The Old Gray Homestead" that everyone I see and hear from is clamoring for. By everyone I don't mean the editors-I want to be perfectly frank- but the public generally. And by "everyone" I don't mean just the old friends at home who were sure to like anything I wrote when that first book came out, but a very different and a much larger public-though it includes those old friends, to that I couldn't count on, a year ago, to want a single copy of anything I wrote- and to whom I feel it tremendously important to respond while there is this demand. I can't go into all the details of why it exists-there seems to be a good many reasons. And I can't- I realize this, too- except you to take my word for it. But I wonder if you would? I don't need to have you tell me a second time that "Lady Blanche Farm" wasn't just what you wanted- if it had been, you wouldn't have sent it back to me. But is every story you public? In rereading the letter with which you sent it back, I gather that you didn't dislike it, that indeed you came very near taking it, that some of the members of the firm thought it should be taken, though I have not the faintest idea which ones wanted to keep it, and which ones thought it should go back. And in view of all this, in view of the fact that I should for many reasons- both present and future- for don't forget that I'm just beginning, that ten years from now I'm hoping to be leagues further on- be very sorry to break with you entirely and start off with a new publisher- I'm writing to ask you if you would reconsider your decision? If you would take "Lady Blanche Farm" and publish it in the fall, advertising it well, but not paying me one single cent for it until it had begun to pay you-that is to say, I suppose, until it had at least passed 50000 copies in sale?
I suppose you will say "no", and then I shall be very sorry and very chagrined to have written you about it- and yes, I couldn't seem to help it! But if you say "yes" I give you my word of honor that you won't be sorry, now and that by the time the third book- "The Safe Bridge" comes along, you'll be glad!
Sincerely yours
Mr. Ferris Greenslet
Boston, Mass.