Transcription:
D. APPLETON CO., 1. 3 5 BOND STREET, NEW YORK. March 8,1893 John Muir, Esq., Martinez, Cal. Dear Sir: I beg to acknowledge
your letter of March 2, and I should like to say that we are very glad indeed to find that the suggestion of the book on mountaineering
in the West strikes you favorably. It seems to me that there is a place for a book written by an authority, but at the same
time popular rather than scientific, and dealing with actual experiences in mountain climbing. Our idea would be that the
book should not be a very large one. On the basis of a 12mo. it should not contain more than 350 or 400 pages. I think the
illustrations could be made satisfactory to you. No doubt you have a considerable number of photographs, and these would be
very carefully reproduced. We should endeavor to make the book in the best possible manner. As regards terms, we should offer
you 10 of the retail price of all copies sold, the payment beginning when the book had met the expense of manufacturing, and
then including all copies sold. For example, if the sale of 1000 copies was necessary to meet the cost of plates, etc., we
should pay you the royalty on the 1000 copies as soon as this number was sold. The idea is that the publisher and author should
become partners, and inasmuch as the publisher invests a considerable amount in the manufacture of the book it seems fair
that the cost of manufacture should be recovered before he pays out an additional amount in royalties. I think that this book
ought to prove a permanent one, and the results in the long run I trust will be satisfactory. We should probably make a book
which would be uniform in size with Darwin's Voyages, or possibly 01437