John Blackwood to GE, Edinburgh, 17 January 1863
Title
John Blackwood to GE, Edinburgh, 17 January 1863
Title
John Blackwood to GE, Edinburgh, 17 January 1863
Sender
John Blackwood
Recipient
George Eliot
Date(s)
- 1863-01-17
Place
Edinburgh
Letter Content
John Blackwood to GE, Edinburgh, 17 January 1863
MS: National Library of Scotland. Hitherto unpublished.
Edinburgh | January 17/63.
My Dear Madam
I think towards Easter will be as good a time as we can select to publish the 3d volume of the collected 6/ edition of your works, putting Silas and the Scenes into one volume. 130 Have you corrected copy to send down?
Of the Mill at 6/- there are about 950 sold including 200 to Australia so I think we shall only print 1000 of the next volume in the first instance. This edition is stereotyped, so that if there is a run on the three volumes when published together we will be ready to meet it. Of the 6/ edition of Adam there are about 650 on hand.
This 6/ edition is not doing what we hoped, and I see that up to midsummer last we had spent 85£ on advertising it (and only Adam was published at that time) so we are not neglecting it in that way indeed. The proposition is too heavy, as much as we had calculated on a sale of 5000. I wish I had a more flourishing account of sales to give but we must hope that the 3 volumes will go together.
A stupid blunder was made, of which so far you will be glad to hear, in reporting the impression of Silas 6/- at 1500 instead of 2000 which was the actual number printed, and as if that were not mistake enough there was a counter blunder, a portion of the stock on hand had been overlooked, as I find there are now 870 on hand. The last blunder had rather prevented the first from striking us at once. Mr. Simpson, who is generally so very accurate, is annoyed at the mistake in the impression and thinks he must have put it down for the number of the Mill printed. 131
There have been about 100 of Silas sold since midsummer and I fear we cannot calculate on many more in the present form when the cheap edition with the Scenes is announced but I hope it will drop a little still.
I have desired copy of Mill to be sent to you but it was too bad of you not to remind Mr. Langford of his oversight when you knew you could have as many copies of any of your books as you like at any time.
With remembrances to Lewes, believe me
always yours truly
John Blackwood.
Mrs. Lewes.
I find we have a corrected copy of Scenes.
MS: National Library of Scotland. Hitherto unpublished.
Edinburgh | January 17/63.
My Dear Madam
I think towards Easter will be as good a time as we can select to publish the 3d volume of the collected 6/ edition of your works, putting Silas and the Scenes into one volume. 130 Have you corrected copy to send down?
Of the Mill at 6/- there are about 950 sold including 200 to Australia so I think we shall only print 1000 of the next volume in the first instance. This edition is stereotyped, so that if there is a run on the three volumes when published together we will be ready to meet it. Of the 6/ edition of Adam there are about 650 on hand.
This 6/ edition is not doing what we hoped, and I see that up to midsummer last we had spent 85£ on advertising it (and only Adam was published at that time) so we are not neglecting it in that way indeed. The proposition is too heavy, as much as we had calculated on a sale of 5000. I wish I had a more flourishing account of sales to give but we must hope that the 3 volumes will go together.
A stupid blunder was made, of which so far you will be glad to hear, in reporting the impression of Silas 6/- at 1500 instead of 2000 which was the actual number printed, and as if that were not mistake enough there was a counter blunder, a portion of the stock on hand had been overlooked, as I find there are now 870 on hand. The last blunder had rather prevented the first from striking us at once. Mr. Simpson, who is generally so very accurate, is annoyed at the mistake in the impression and thinks he must have put it down for the number of the Mill printed. 131
There have been about 100 of Silas sold since midsummer and I fear we cannot calculate on many more in the present form when the cheap edition with the Scenes is announced but I hope it will drop a little still.
I have desired copy of Mill to be sent to you but it was too bad of you not to remind Mr. Langford of his oversight when you knew you could have as many copies of any of your books as you like at any time.
With remembrances to Lewes, believe me
always yours truly
John Blackwood.
Mrs. Lewes.
I find we have a corrected copy of Scenes.
Signature
John Blackwood.
Citation
John Blackwood, John Blackwood to GE, Edinburgh, 17 January 1863, Complete George Eliot Letters(2026), George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett. https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org, Accessed September 7, 2026. https://www.georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/95200