Title:
Letter from Frank H. Scott to John Muir, 1903 Jun 2.
Creator:
Frank H. Scott
Publisher:
University of the Pacific Library Holt-Atherton Special Collections. Please contact this institution directly to obtain copies
of the images or permission to publish or use them beyond educational purposes.
Contributor:
John Muir
Date:
1903 Jun 2
2008
Type:
Text
Format:
Image/jpeg2000
Identifier:
muir13_0613-md-1
Source:
Original letter dimensions: 20 x 25 cm.
Language:
eng
Coverage:
New York
Rights:
Copyright status unknown
Some letters written to John Muir may be protected by the U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.). Transmission or reproduction
of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners.
Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user.
Transcription:
June 2, 1903. My dear Mr. Muir: I regret very much that I was not here when you called on Friday; I wanted to see you
before you sailed and especially to take up the book question with you. The situation has changed very much since we published
the Mountains of California nearly ten years ago, and there are several things which we should do differently now. It was
an experiment to put out such a volume, with fifty or more pictures scattered through the text, and sell it for one dollar
and fifty cents retail - the price of an ordinary novel - as printed in this way the book cost almost twice as much to manufacture
as the average novel. But our idea as you will remember was to make a cheap, popular volume and push for the largest possible
sale, and under this scheme there could be but a slight margin of profit to either you or us on each copy sold. Looking back
from our present standpoint this was probably a mistake. But we want you to know that the brunt of this has fallen upon us.
I have just gone over the figures and find that on the total sales to date our profits have been considerably less than yours.
Different conditions prevail in 03258 the trade now. We note that Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin and Co. have published Our
National Parks at one dollar and seventy-five cents net, which - with the present system of discounts - is equivalent to at
least two dollars and twenty-five cents old style; and if we Were publishing a new volume by you of this size we should probably
make the price at least two dollars, leaving a larger margin for you as well as for us. We certainly can, and will pay you
as large a royalty as any other house. On the Yosemite book we propose to make the royalty fifteen per cent, and we will pay
the same on the volume on Siberia and your present trip which we have asked you to write for us. We should hope too that considerable
portions of this latter volume would be available for first publication in the magazine at prices to be agreed upon with the
editors. I hope soon to hear from you and to know that the Yosemite volume will be ready at an early date and hat we are
also in due time to have the Siberian book, to which we are all looking forward as one of your mo st. important and interesting
volumes. Believe me, Very sincerely yours, illegible John Muir, Esq