Creator

F[ranklin] S[herman] Hoyt

Recipient

John Muir

Transcription

[illegible]

BOSTON NEW YORK
CHICAGO

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
4 PARK STREET BOSTON

EDUCATIONAL DEPARTMENT

October 11, 1913

Dear Dr. Muir:

Ever since we first published Stickeen, we have had the feeling that the children in our public schools should have access to this wonderful story. We have reason to hope that it will prove to be a permanent educational classic like Ouida's Dog of Flanders. We believe the time has now come when a school edition of this story could be issued without materially affecting its trade sale. We are accordingly writing you to see whether it would be agreeable to you if we should publish it in our Riverside Literature Series, in which, as you may know, we have already issued many of our choicest publications. We are sending you under separate cover a catalogue of this Series.
It has been our experience that the publication of a school edition of a book of this kind does not at all interfere with the sale of the trade edition of the book, but on the contrary, it often stimulates a larger sale of it through its usual channels. It is never safe to foretell exactly what effect on the trade sale of a book the publication of a school edition will have; but, obviously, we should not suggest the school edition to you

05572

Boston NEW YORK
CHICAGO

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
4 PARK STREET. BOSTON

EDUCATIONAL DEPARTMENT

-2- Dr. Muirif we felt that it would affect unfavorably its trade sale.
We ordinarily do not include copyrighted material in this Series, but when it is done, we are obliged, because of the necessity of very low prices and high selling cost, to offer authors a very much reduced royalty. For books of the size of Stickeen . we can charge only 15 cents if bound in paper and 25 cents if bound in cloth, these figures being subject also to a considerable educational discount. We accordingly could pay you only 5% royalty on the list prices of all sales on the school edition. This would bring in only a small return on each book, but we hope that eventually the book would be so extensively used in the schools as to bring in a good return. We should, of course, continue to push the trade sale of the book in its present form.
We shall appreciate hearing from you in regard to this suggestion as early as may be convenient.

Yours very truly,
Houghton Mifflin Company.

[illegible]Dr. John Muir,
Martinez, California.
FSH/B

05572

Location

Boston

Date Original

1913 Oct 11

Source

Original letter dimensions: 28 x 21.5 cm.

Resource Identifier

muir21_0868-let.tif

File Identifier

Reel 21, Image 0868

Collection Identifier

Online finding aid for the microform version of the John Muir Correspondence http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt0w1031nc

Copyright Statement

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.

Owning Institution

Holt-Atherton Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library. Please contact this institution directly to obtain copies of the images or permission to publish or use them beyond educational purposes.

Pages

2 pages

Keywords

Environmentalist, naturalist, travel, conservation, national parks, John Muir, Yosemite, California, history, correspondence, letters

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