Complete Works of F. Scott Fitzgerald UK (Illustrated)
Page 450
No news from Emest. In the latest Transition (Volume 9) there is some good stuff by Murray Goodwin (unprintable here) and a fine German play.
Always your afft. friend,
Scott
Except for a three day break last week (Xmas) I have been on the absolute wagon since the middle of October. Feel simply grand. Smoke only Sanos. God help us all.
c/o Guaranty Trust Co.
Paris,France
circa July 1,1928
Dear Max:
We are settled and not a soul in the world knows where we are; on the absolute wagon and working on the novel, the whole novel and nothing but the novel. I’m coming back in August with it or on it. Thank you so much for the money - by this time Reynolds will have sold my last story and that, at French prices, will carry us through.
Please advise me as to the enclosure. Why not let’s do it - you acting as my agent directly with him and keeping 10% thus saving Curtis Brown’s 10%? Anyhow please advise me - I’d like to be published by him as he’s done better than anyone in England with Americans.
I strongly advise your obtaining immediately the translation rights to Les Hommes de la Route by André Chamson (Published by Bernard Grasset)
He’s young, not salacious, and apparently is destined by all the solid literary men here to be the great novelist of France - no flash in the pan like Crevel, Radiguet, Aragon, etc. He has a simply astonishing reputation in its enthusiasm and solidity.
Yours as ever devotedly,
Scott
Thanks for the books at the boat - many thanks!
58 rue Vaugirard
Paris, France
circa July 15, 1928
Dear Max:
I read John Bishop’s novel. Of course it’s impossible. All the people who were impressed with Norman Douglas’ South Wind and Beerbohm’s Zuletlta Dobson tried to follow them in their wretched organization of material - without having either the brilliant intelligence of Douglas or the wit of Beerbohm. Vide the total collapse of Aldous Huxley. Conrad has been, after all, the healthy influence on the technique of the novel.
Anyhow at the same time Bishop gave me a novelette to read - and to my great astonishment, as a document of the Civil War, it’s right up to Bierce and Stephen Crane - beautifully written.
thrilling, and water tight as to construction and interest. He’s been so discouraged over the hash he made of the novel that he’s been half afraid to send it anywhere, and I told him that now that tales of violence are so popular I thought Scribner’s Magazine would love to have a look at it.
So I’m sending it - no one has seen it but me. His address is Chateau de Tressancourt, Orgeval, Seine et Oise. I’m working hard as hell.
As ever your friend,
Scott
58 rue Vaugirard
Paris
France
circa July 21, 1928
Dear Max:
(1) — The novel goes fine. I think it’s quite wonderful and I think those who’ve seen it (for I’ve read it around a little) have been quite excited. I was encouraged the other day, when James Joyce came to dinner, when he said, ‘Yes, I expect to finish my novel in three or four years more at the latest,’ and he works 11 hours a day to my intermittent 8. Mine will be done sure in September.
(2) — Did you get my letter about André Chamson? Really, Max, you’re missing a great opportunity if you don’t take that up. Radiguet was perhaps obscene - Chamson is absolutely not - he’s head over heels the best young man here, like Ernest and Thornton Wilder rolled into one. This Hommes de la Route (Road Menders) is his second novel and all but won the Prix Goncourt - the story of men building a road, with all of the force of K. Hamsun’s Growth of the Soil - not a bit like Tom Boyd’s bogus American husbandmen. Moreover, the I know him only slightly and have no axe to grind, I have every faith in him as an extraordinary personality, like France and Proust. Incidentally King Vidor (who made The Crowd and The Big Parade) is making a picture of it next summer. If you have any confidence in my judgment do at least get a report on it and let me know what you decide. Ten years from now he’ll be beyond price.
(3) — I plan to publish a book of those Basil Lee stories after the novel. Perhaps one or two more serious ones to be published in The Mercury or with Scribners, if you’d want them, combined with the total of about six in the Post series would make a nice light novel, almost to follow my novel in the season immediately after, so as not to seem in the direct line of my so-called ‘work.’ It would run to perhaps 50 or 60 thousand words.
(4) — Do let me know any plans of (a) Ernest, (b) Ring, (c) Tom (reviews poor, I notice), (d) John Biggs.
(5) — Did you like Bishop’s story? I thought it was grand.
(6) — Home September 15 th, I think. Best to Louise.
(7) — About Cape - won’t you arrange it for me and take the 10% commission? That is if I’m not committed morally to Chatto & Windus who did, so to speak, pick me up out of the English gutter. I’d rather be with Cape. Please decide and act accordingly if you will. If you don’t I’ll just ask Reynolds. As you like. Let me know.
Ever your devoted and grateful friend,
Scott
Everslie
Edgemoor,
Delaware
November, 1928
Dear Max:
It seems fine to be sending you something again, even though it’s only the first fourth of the book (2 chapters, 18,000 words). Now comes another short story, then I’ll patch up Chapters 3 and 4 the same way, and send them, I hope, about the ist of December.
Chapter 1 here is good.
Chapter 2 has caused me more trouble than anything in the book. You’ll realize this when I tell you it was once 27,000 words long! It started its career as Chapter 1.I am far from satisfied with it even now, but won’t go into its obvious faults. I would appreciate it if you jotted down any criticisms - and saved them until I’ve sent you the whole book, because I want to feel that each part is finished and not worry about it any longer, even though I may change it enormously at the very last minute. All I want to know now is if, in general, you like it and this will have to wait, I suppose, until you’ve seen the next batch which finishes the first half. (My God, it’s good to see those chapters lying in an envelope!)
I think I have found you a new prospect of really extraordinary talent in a Carl Van Vechten way. I have his first novel at hand - unfortunately it’s about Lesbians. More of this later.
I think Bunny’s title is wonderful!
Remember novel is confidential, even to Ernest.
Always yours,
Scott
Everslie
Edgemoor, Delaware
circa March 1, 1929
Dear Max:
I am sneaking away like a thief without leaving the chapters - there is a week’s work to straighten them out and, in the confusion of influenza and leaving, I haven’t been able to do it. I’ll do it on the boat and send it from Genoa. A thousand thanks for your patience - just trust me a few months longer, Max - it’s been a discouraging time for me too but I will never forget your kindness and the fact that you’ve never reproached me.
I’m delighted about Ernest’s book - I bow to your decision on the Modern Library without agreeing at all. $100.00 or $50.00 advance is better than one-eighth of $40.00 for a year’s royalty, and Scribner collection sounds vague and arbitrary to me.But it’s a trifle and I’ll give them a new and much inferior story as I want to be represented with those men, i e., Forster, Conrad, Mansfield, etc.
Herewith a manuscript I promised to bring you - I think it needs cutting but it just might sell with a decent title and no foreword. I don’t feel certain the at all -
Will you watch for some stories from a young Holger Lund- berg who has appeared in The Mercury? He is a man of some promise and I headed him your way.
I hate to leave without seeing you - and I hate to see you with-
out the ability to put the finished ms. in your hands. So for
a few months goodbye, and my affection and gratitude always.
Scott
Somewhere in France
circa April 1, 1929
Dear Max:
This letter is too hurried to thank you for the very kind and encouraging one you wrote me. It’s only to say - watch for a book on Baudelaire by Pierre Loving which Madeleine Boyd will bring you. I believe another one has been published but this man once did me a service and I promised to call your attention to it, before knowing it had a rival in the market.
I’m delighted about Ernest’s novel. Will be here in Paris trying as usual to finish mine, till July 1st, c/o The Guaranty Trust, rue des Italiens. Then the seashore.
A Frenchman here (unfortunately I haven’t his book at hand but he’s a well known writer on aviation) has written a book called Evasions d’Aviateurs dealing with aviators’ escapes during the war - all true and to me fascinating. It’s a best seller here now. In three months will come a sequel which will include some escapes of German and American aviators (as you know it was the tradition of all aviators to escape) which will include that of Tommy Hitchcock.
What would you say to the two-in-one oversized volume, profusely illustrated with photographs? I believe Liberty had a great success with Richthofen and as a record of human ingenuity Les Evasions d’Aviateurs is astounding. To swell the thing a third book he has just published called Special Missions of Aviators During the War might be added. What do you think? It might just make a great killing, like Trader Horn - it has a certain bizarre quality to divert the bored.
Unfortunately I haven’t the man’s name.
Again thank you for your kind and understanding letter. I’m ashamed of myself for whining about nothing and never will again.
Scott F.
Villa Fleur des Bois Boulevard Eugene Gazagnaire (Till October 1st)
Cannes, France circa June, 1929
Dear Max:
A line in haste to say (1) — I am working night and day on novel from new angle that I think will solve previous difficulties.
(2) — Dotty Parker, whose ‘Big Blonde’ won O. Henry prize, is writing a novelette or novel. She has been getting bad prices and I think, if she interested you, she’d be glad to find a market in Scribners. fust now she’s at a high point as a producer and as to reputation. You’d better get her Paris bank address from Bookman or New Yorker and have them forward, as I don’t know when she’ll leave here, where she’s at Hotel Beau Rivage, Antibes. I wouldn’t lose any time about this if it interests you.
(3) — Ernest’s last letter a little worried, but I don’t see why. To hell with the toughs of Boston. I hope to God All Quiet on the Western Front won’t cut in on his sales. My bet is the book will pass 50,000.
(4) — Deeply sorry about Ring. Why won’t he write about Great Neck, a sort of Odyssey of man starting in theatre business?
(5) — Do send me Bunny’s book. I heard about his breakdown. I hope his poems include ‘Our Autumns were unreal with the new -’ Please ask him about it - it’s haunted me for 12 years.
(6) — Sorry about John’s leg - am writing him as I want news of the play.
(7) — Tom Boyd has apparently dropped from sight, hasn’t he? Do give me any news.
Always your afft. friend,
Scott
10 rue Pergolèse Paris, France circa November 15, 1929
Dear Max: —
For the first time since August I see my way clear to a long stretch on the novel, so I’m writing you as I can’t bear to do when it’s in one of its states of postponement and seems so in the air. We are not coming home for Xmas, because of expense and because it’d be an awful interruption now. Both our families are raising hell but I can’t compromise the remains of my future for that.
I’m glad of Ring’s success the - at least it’s for something new and will make him think he’s still alive and not a defunct semi- classic. Also Ernest’s press has been marvelous and I hope it sells. By the way McAlmon is a bitter rat and I’m not surprised at anything he does or says. He’s failed as a writer and tries to fortify himself by tying up to the big boys like Joyce and Stein and despising everything else. Part of his quarrel with Ernest some years ago was because he assured Ernest that I was a fairy - God knows he shows more creative imagination in his malice than in his work. Next he told Callaghant that Ernest was a fairy. He’s a pretty good person to avoid.
Sorry Bunny’s book didn’t go - I thought it was fine, and more interesting than better, or at least more achieved, novels.
Congratulations to Louise.
Oh, and what the hell is this book I keep getting clippings about, with me and Struthers Burt and Ernest, etc.? As I remember, you refused to let The Rich Boy’ be published in the Modern Library in a representative collection where it would have helped me, and here it is in a book obviously foredoomed to oblivion that can serve no purpose than to fatigue reviewers with the stories. I know it’s a small matter but I am disturbed by the fact that you didn’t see fit to discuss it with me.
However that’s a rather disagreeable note to close on when I am forever in your debt for countless favors and valuable advice. It is because so little has happened to me lately that it seems magni-
fied. Will you, by the way, send the Princeton book by Edgar - it’s not available here. Did Tom Boyd elope? And what about Bigg’s play?
Ever your afft. friend,
Scott
10 rue Pergolèse Paris, France
January 21, 1930
Dear Max:
This has run to seven long close-written pages so you better not read it when you’re in a hurry There is so much to write you - or rather so many small things that I’ll write, first the personal things, and then on another sheet a series of suggestions about books and authors that have accumulated in me in the last six months.
(1) — To begin with, because I don’t mention my novel it isn’t because it isn’t finishing up or that I’m neglecting it - but only that I’m weary of setting dates for it till the moment when it is in the post office box.
(2) — I was very grateful for the money - it won’t happen again but I’d managed to get horribly into debt and I hated to call on Ober, who’s just getting started, for another cent.
(3) — Thank you for the documents in the Callaghan case. I’d rather not discuss it except to say that I don’t like him and that I wrote him a formal letter of apology. I never thought he started the rumor and never said nor implied such a thing to Ernest.
(4) — Delighted with the success of Ernest’s book. I took the responsibility of telling him that McAlmon was at his old dirty work around New York. McAlmon, by the way, didn’t have anything to do with founding Transition. He published Ernest’s first book over here and some books of his own and did found some little magazine but of no importance.
(5) — Thank you for getting Gatsby for me in foreign languages.
(6) — ....
(7) — Tom Boyd seems far away. I’ll tell you one awful thing tho. Laurence Stallings was in the West with King Vidor at a huge salary to write an equivalent of What Price Glory. King Vidor told me that Stallings, in despair of showing Vidor what the war was about, gave him a copy of Through the Wheat. And that’s how Vidor made the big scenes in The Big Parade. Tom Boyd’s profits were a few thousand - Stallings were a few hundred thousands. Please don’t connect my name with this story but it is the truth and it seems to me rather horrible.
(8) — Lastly and most important. For the English rights of my next book Knopf made me an offer so much better than any in England (advance $500.00; royalties sliding from ten to fifteen and twenty; guaranty to publish next book of short stories at same rate) that I accepted of course. My previous talk with Cape was encouraging on my part but conditional. As to Chatto and Windus - since they made no overtures at my All the Sad Young Men I feel free to take any advantage of a technicality to have my short stories published in England, especially as they answered a letter of mine on the publication of
the book with the signature (Chatto & Windus, per Q), undoubtedly an English method of showing real interest in one’s work.
I must tell you (and privately) for your own amusement that the first treaty Knopf sent me contained a clause that would have required me to give him $10,000 on date of publication - that is: 25% of all serial rights (not specifying only English ones) for which Liberty have contracted, as you know, for $40,000. This was pretty — or maybe an error in his office, but later I went over the contract with a fine tooth comb and he was very decent. Confidential! Incidentally he said to me as Harcourt once did to Ernest that you were the best publishers in America. I told him he was wrong - that you were just a lot of royalty-doctorers and short changers.
No more for the moment. I liked Bunny’s book and am sorry it didn’t go. I thought those Day Edgar stories made a nice book, didn t you? —
Ever your devoted friend,
Scott
I append the sheet of brilliant ideas of which you may find one or two worth considering. Congratulations on the Eddy book.
(Suggestion List)
(1) — Certainly if the ubiquitous and ruined McAlmon deserves a hearing then John Bishop, a poet and a man of really great talents and intelligence, does. I am sending you under another cover a sister story of the novelette you refused, which together with the first one and three shorter ones will form his Civil-War- civilian-in-invaded-Virginia book, a simply grand idea and a new, rich field. The enclosed is the best thing he has ever done and the best thing about the non-combatant or rather behind-the-lines war I’ve ever read. I hope to God you can use this in the magazine - couldn’t it be run into small type carried over like Sew Collins did with Boston and you Farewell to Arms? He needs the encouragement and is so worth it.