John Blackwood to GHL, Edinburgh, 19 March 1877
Title
John Blackwood to GHL, Edinburgh, 19 March 1877
Title
John Blackwood to GHL, Edinburgh, 19 March 1877
Sender
John Blackwood
Recipient
George Henry Lewes
Date(s)
- 1877-03-19
Place
Edinburgh
Letter Content
John Blackwood to GHL, Edinburgh, 19 March 1877
MS: National Library of Scotland. Hitherto unpublished.
Randolph Crescent
March 19/77.
My Dear Lewes
You will have been surprised at not hearing sooner from me in reply to your last interesting letter. The fact is that I have been out of sorts and languid and being very much puzzled what to advise about the Novels, I have put off writing from day to day.
I feel that there is too little being made out of those admirable books and we must try something to give a semblance of novelty to a complete edition of George Eliot's Works.
After many talks with Simpson and Willie I think we all point to something very like what you propose viz. a 6/- edition beginning with Romola in the same type as the present edition but printed on larger and finer paper which being adopted with the other volumes would make them like entirely new editions and fully worth 6/- except of course Silas Marner. As long as Middlemarch continues to sell as it is doing it will be advisable to keep it at 7/6 and Deronda the same. These two are so much larger than the other volumes that the difference in price could not reasonably be objected to. Deronda we may I think start at 7/6 in Spring some time. We would propose to cancel the illustrations to the present edition and give in each volume an engraved vignette frontispiece like what we have in Middlemarch. We would continue the 3/6 edition or at all events be guided by circumstances as we found how the two editions worked abreast. The Lifted Veil and Brother Jacob are wonderful Tales but both so desperately painful that I have a scruple in coupling them with Silas. Mrs. Lewes and you however are by far the best judges of this.
The Agent we employed for the Deronda advertiser did not do his work so efficiently as we expected 621 but inclosed I have the pleasure of sending cheque £128-17-3d being the balance to author as per inclosed statement.
I hope Mrs. Lewes and you are both well and getting cheerily through your preparations for moving to the country. I quite look forward to coming to see you in May or June.
For the last day or two I have been keeping to the house owing to cold and general malaise but I hope to be about all right tomorrow.
ever yours truly
John Blackwood.
DANIEL DERONDA ADVERTISER
By Amount charged for Advertisements
Feb. 1 in Book I 53.14.0
Mar. Book II 56. 8.9
Apl. Book III 44. 3.9
May Book IV 44. 3.9
June Book V 33. 1.9
July Book VI 42.10.9
Aug. Book VII 32.10.6
Sept. Book VIII 37.11.9
Deduct cost of Printing and Paper 86.10.7
To Author's Share one half 128.17.3
To Commissions to Canvassers paid by Publishers 51.12.10
To Publisher's Share 77. 4. 4 128.17.2
MS: National Library of Scotland. Hitherto unpublished.
Randolph Crescent
March 19/77.
My Dear Lewes
You will have been surprised at not hearing sooner from me in reply to your last interesting letter. The fact is that I have been out of sorts and languid and being very much puzzled what to advise about the Novels, I have put off writing from day to day.
I feel that there is too little being made out of those admirable books and we must try something to give a semblance of novelty to a complete edition of George Eliot's Works.
After many talks with Simpson and Willie I think we all point to something very like what you propose viz. a 6/- edition beginning with Romola in the same type as the present edition but printed on larger and finer paper which being adopted with the other volumes would make them like entirely new editions and fully worth 6/- except of course Silas Marner. As long as Middlemarch continues to sell as it is doing it will be advisable to keep it at 7/6 and Deronda the same. These two are so much larger than the other volumes that the difference in price could not reasonably be objected to. Deronda we may I think start at 7/6 in Spring some time. We would propose to cancel the illustrations to the present edition and give in each volume an engraved vignette frontispiece like what we have in Middlemarch. We would continue the 3/6 edition or at all events be guided by circumstances as we found how the two editions worked abreast. The Lifted Veil and Brother Jacob are wonderful Tales but both so desperately painful that I have a scruple in coupling them with Silas. Mrs. Lewes and you however are by far the best judges of this.
The Agent we employed for the Deronda advertiser did not do his work so efficiently as we expected 621 but inclosed I have the pleasure of sending cheque £128-17-3d being the balance to author as per inclosed statement.
I hope Mrs. Lewes and you are both well and getting cheerily through your preparations for moving to the country. I quite look forward to coming to see you in May or June.
For the last day or two I have been keeping to the house owing to cold and general malaise but I hope to be about all right tomorrow.
ever yours truly
John Blackwood.
DANIEL DERONDA ADVERTISER
By Amount charged for Advertisements
Feb. 1 in Book I 53.14.0
Mar. Book II 56. 8.9
Apl. Book III 44. 3.9
May Book IV 44. 3.9
June Book V 33. 1.9
July Book VI 42.10.9
Aug. Book VII 32.10.6
Sept. Book VIII 37.11.9
Deduct cost of Printing and Paper 86.10.7
To Author's Share one half 128.17.3
To Commissions to Canvassers paid by Publishers 51.12.10
To Publisher's Share 77. 4. 4 128.17.2
Signature
John Blackwood.
Citation
John Blackwood, John Blackwood to GHL, Edinburgh, 19 March 1877, 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/95378