John Blackwood to GE, Edinburgh, 30 April 1866
Title
John Blackwood to GE, Edinburgh, 30 April 1866
Title
John Blackwood to GE, Edinburgh, 30 April 1866
Sender
John Blackwood
Recipient
George Eliot
Date(s)
- 1866-04-30
Place
Edinburgh
Letter Content
John Blackwood to GE, Edinburgh, 30 April 1866
MS: National Library of Scotland. Hitherto unpublished.
Edinburgh | April 30/66.
My Dear Madam
Your letter gives me great and honest pleasure. Felix Holt is now fairly in the Printing Office and proofs will begin to pour in upon you in a few days. There is always a little delay at starting for calculations of quantity etc.; besides this has been what is popularly called "The Preaching Week" 448 when the Scottish "working man" biennially shows his devotion -- to Bacchus. Not that I mean anything against my own printers, who with rare exceptions are excellent steady men.
I had the manager up to my room to warn him about spacing the dialogue properly. He is a most matter of fact gentleman and remarked "Sir, there is every sign of experience about the Dialogues." I kept my countenance and understood his meaning -- that you had marked the dialogues so distinctly that the compositors could not fall into the mistake of running on. By the way, how admirable your mottoes are. Many of them I imagine to be your own. I see you have left blanks in many cases. Do you mean to fill them up?
I must tell you that when Mr. Simpson took home the M.S. at night his mother, a most shrewd old lady, an Englishwoman, got hold of it and has nearly blinded herself. I went to call upon her yesterday and found her in perfect raptures. There was an additional comical element that she was under the impression that she had rather done something surreptitious of which I might possibly not approve.
I am off bag and baggage to Strathtyrum this afternoon. It is the
Golf meeting week and I am almost as eager for it as my little boy Jack, who for the last fortnight has aroused me in the morning with a statement of in how many days we would be at "the Strath." Yesterday after dinner he suddenly broke out "At this time tomorrow Papa." On the 14th of May I intend to be in London, when I hope to find you and Lewes quite recruited and your work pretty well over.
always yours truly
John Blackwood.
Mrs. Lewes.
I think Lewes will probably be able to make a better arrangement for the right of early sheets for America, and the liberty to translate than we could for you. The transatlantic vultures may be drawn a speck nearer honesty by the desire to propitiate a great author than they would in any business transaction with a publisher. If Mr. Lewes does not know to whom to apply Mr. Langford can give him every information. Tauchnitz may very probably ask for leave to introduce the book into his series of English novelists in our own language, but do not grant him this. It is dangerous.
MS: National Library of Scotland. Hitherto unpublished.
Edinburgh | April 30/66.
My Dear Madam
Your letter gives me great and honest pleasure. Felix Holt is now fairly in the Printing Office and proofs will begin to pour in upon you in a few days. There is always a little delay at starting for calculations of quantity etc.; besides this has been what is popularly called "The Preaching Week" 448 when the Scottish "working man" biennially shows his devotion -- to Bacchus. Not that I mean anything against my own printers, who with rare exceptions are excellent steady men.
I had the manager up to my room to warn him about spacing the dialogue properly. He is a most matter of fact gentleman and remarked "Sir, there is every sign of experience about the Dialogues." I kept my countenance and understood his meaning -- that you had marked the dialogues so distinctly that the compositors could not fall into the mistake of running on. By the way, how admirable your mottoes are. Many of them I imagine to be your own. I see you have left blanks in many cases. Do you mean to fill them up?
I must tell you that when Mr. Simpson took home the M.S. at night his mother, a most shrewd old lady, an Englishwoman, got hold of it and has nearly blinded herself. I went to call upon her yesterday and found her in perfect raptures. There was an additional comical element that she was under the impression that she had rather done something surreptitious of which I might possibly not approve.
I am off bag and baggage to Strathtyrum this afternoon. It is the
Golf meeting week and I am almost as eager for it as my little boy Jack, who for the last fortnight has aroused me in the morning with a statement of in how many days we would be at "the Strath." Yesterday after dinner he suddenly broke out "At this time tomorrow Papa." On the 14th of May I intend to be in London, when I hope to find you and Lewes quite recruited and your work pretty well over.
always yours truly
John Blackwood.
Mrs. Lewes.
I think Lewes will probably be able to make a better arrangement for the right of early sheets for America, and the liberty to translate than we could for you. The transatlantic vultures may be drawn a speck nearer honesty by the desire to propitiate a great author than they would in any business transaction with a publisher. If Mr. Lewes does not know to whom to apply Mr. Langford can give him every information. Tauchnitz may very probably ask for leave to introduce the book into his series of English novelists in our own language, but do not grant him this. It is dangerous.
Signature
John Blackwood.
Citation
John Blackwood, John Blackwood to GE, Edinburgh, 30 April 1866, 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/95266