FPK to Edna Hale, October 15, 1924
Dublin Core
Title
FPK to Edna Hale, October 15, 1924
Description
October 15, 1924
Dear cousin Ednah:-
It is difficult for me to know just how to answer your letter of October 14th and make you understand why it would be neither business-like nor proper for me to send you a paper starting that if I wrote an article about aunt Nancy I would share the profits with you, for as you seem to think it would be, I do not think anything I could say would alter this opinion. The only way in which I should use material about her at present would be in the course of an article which would contain a great deal else beside what I said about her. One of the numerous cores-pondents, a person whim I have never seen, has written in to the magazine suggesting that I write an article on heredity--that I have never yet made it clear what I owe to my ancestors, and both the Editor and I think the suggestion such a good one, that we have hoped to act upon it sooner or later, though no definite date has been set for doing so. I such an article I should write not only about aunt Nancy, but about my grandmother on the other side of the family, and several other men and women who undoubtedly, have had a great influence on me, and to whom I am more than delighted to have a chance to acknow-ledge my debt. I could not give half the profits of the article to everyone who sends information about any one of these ancestors, partly because the money would not be divided into halves, but into quarters, or even eights, and as that would leave me nothing for myself. If I were to write a book entirely devoted to her life, to proposi-tion would, of course, be an entirely different one, though even then I do not think you would find that any author would divide the profits in the way you have mentioned. The writing of a book involved an amount of time and labor absolutely incomprehensible to one who has never done it, and in any compilation the major part of the reward must go to the actual worker, else he or she could never afford to attempt it. Of course, sometimes letters, et cetera, are bought outright when they are to be used for reference, and have a real value to an author as a permanent possession, but in this case you ask that the letters be returned, so I think it would be better for me to obtain such information as I can from other sources and not to depend on what you have at all. There is, as you say, a very good, though brief, account of persons in this vicinity who remember her well and will be glad to tell me what they know about her.
With kind regards, and regretting that I cannot cooperate with you in your plan,
Very sincerely yours,
Dear cousin Ednah:-
It is difficult for me to know just how to answer your letter of October 14th and make you understand why it would be neither business-like nor proper for me to send you a paper starting that if I wrote an article about aunt Nancy I would share the profits with you, for as you seem to think it would be, I do not think anything I could say would alter this opinion. The only way in which I should use material about her at present would be in the course of an article which would contain a great deal else beside what I said about her. One of the numerous cores-pondents, a person whim I have never seen, has written in to the magazine suggesting that I write an article on heredity--that I have never yet made it clear what I owe to my ancestors, and both the Editor and I think the suggestion such a good one, that we have hoped to act upon it sooner or later, though no definite date has been set for doing so. I such an article I should write not only about aunt Nancy, but about my grandmother on the other side of the family, and several other men and women who undoubtedly, have had a great influence on me, and to whom I am more than delighted to have a chance to acknow-ledge my debt. I could not give half the profits of the article to everyone who sends information about any one of these ancestors, partly because the money would not be divided into halves, but into quarters, or even eights, and as that would leave me nothing for myself. If I were to write a book entirely devoted to her life, to proposi-tion would, of course, be an entirely different one, though even then I do not think you would find that any author would divide the profits in the way you have mentioned. The writing of a book involved an amount of time and labor absolutely incomprehensible to one who has never done it, and in any compilation the major part of the reward must go to the actual worker, else he or she could never afford to attempt it. Of course, sometimes letters, et cetera, are bought outright when they are to be used for reference, and have a real value to an author as a permanent possession, but in this case you ask that the letters be returned, so I think it would be better for me to obtain such information as I can from other sources and not to depend on what you have at all. There is, as you say, a very good, though brief, account of persons in this vicinity who remember her well and will be glad to tell me what they know about her.
With kind regards, and regretting that I cannot cooperate with you in your plan,
Very sincerely yours,
Creator
Frances Parkinson Keyes
Source
From the collection of Frances Parkinson Keyes Papers, Special Collections, University of Vermont Library.
Date
1924-10-15
Contributor
Hope Greenberg
Identifier
Box 1, folder 11