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GRANT ALLEN
Novelist and Miscellaneous Writer
Born
Alwington,
An Annotated Bibliography of His MSS,
unpublished
Correspondence, etc.
Last revised:
Aberystwyth
National Library of
TLS with autograph revisions to Mr Hartland, 1897. Department of Manuscripts and Records. NLW
MS.5925D.
The Great Oriental Seer. Undated
typescript with autograph corrections. In the Grant
Allen collection.
[A fake psychic predicts an earthquake; a rational explanation is supplied. No
publication known.]
A Modern Pygmalion. Undated
typescript with autograph corrections. In the Grant
Allen collection.
[A museum robbery is thwarted by a detective disguised as a statue. No
publication known.]
TLS, 1892. Recipient unknown.
Typescript. In the Grant Allen
collection.
TLS to Henry Stephens Salt,
TLS to [John] Lane,
Sixteen ALS and TLS to
[Little of interest in this correspondence, which is mostly short business
notes]
ALS and TLS to Grant Richards. Undated and 10 June
1898. In the Grant Richards collection.
ALS to Thomas Hardy, 10 May [1895]. In the Thomas Hardy
collection.
Thanks for copy of Tess
ALS to Ernest Bramah Smith, 1897. In the Ernest Bramah Smith
collection.
Two ALS and one TLS dated
Two TLS to Richard Le Gallienne. Undated.
In the Richard Le Gallienne collection.
There is not a great deal of interest in any of these HRC items
Letter. Undated. Recipient unknown. A.L.1957.
ALS to ‘Dear Madam’. Addressed from Hind Head,
Haslemere. Undated. In C.K.
Ogden collection. BANC MSS 92/242 z.
ALS to ‘Gentlemen’. Addressed from
ALS to ‘Gentlemen’. Addressed from Lyme,
Dorset. Undated. In C.K.
Ogden collection. BANC MSS 92/693 z
Birmingham
Birmingham Reference Library
Two letters, one of them to Miss Morgan. Undated.
Autograph. In MS135.
Letter. Undated.
Autograph. L.Add.404.
King Edward’s School Archives
Records of GA’s attendance, prizes etc.
Letter to J. W. Arrowsmith, 1892. Autograph. 40145/P/11 (a-b).
Letter [to Messrs Tillotson and Son], 1891. Autograph. With a photocopy.
Archives. ZBEN/4/1,98.
Letters from Andrew
Lang to GA. None
is fully dated, but internal references in some date them to the
late-80s-mid-90s. Most of them deal with Lang’s sparring with Allen over
anthropological questions and are of little interest.
ALS. ‘July 23’ [possibly
1886]. Dear Allen Have you a short story would suit Harper’s. If so, do let me have a squint at it, and
I’ll try to get it in there. Not one that will puzzle them like John
Creedy, and no more Herbert Spencer than is actually necessary for the
love-interest. . . . It is not you
who gives that ass with his Gipsies a good word in PMG?
ALS ‘Dec 8’ [1884]. Confirms the pay for Charles Darwin was 100 pounds.
ALS ‘Aug 5’ [1885]. Dear Allen, I have
sent a heap of proofs to Spottiswoode’s with such alterations as I think
would do no harm, and asked them to send my corrected sheets to you with your
revises. I send to you sheets with my marks, from 161- to end.
Only in one or two I correct misprints but I point out some places where I
think you might modify or suppress slaps at orthodoxy. Personally I don’t
agree with the parson that there is no God, but, even if there is not, nor any
miracles, there is no use in what you call ‘the orgies of the biological
Thermidor’ in a little popular book. Only a few short paragraphs have
this orgiastic character, don’t you think you could oblige me personally
by modifying them? If people believed in a God and a soul, they could not be
expected to receive without demur criticisms which they thought inconsistent
with their hopes, and I don’t know that they need be thought wrong.
Personally I don’t find it easier to believe in Darwinism than in
Buddhism, and I don’t care a penny what conclusions physical science may
come to. We are still as far as ever from knowing what matter and energy are,
as far as ever from knowing anything worth mentioning,
and some [things] always will be. But every reader is not likely to be of this
mind, and many will be put off by one or two little verbal orgies so if you
think you can alter them (the passages I have scribbled on, except where the
scribble is chaff or purely private) I will be very glad, and I think it will
be all the better for such a very clear and excellent account of arwin’s
work. See what a long letter I have written you with my own hand.
ALS ‘Nov 24’ [1892]. Dear Allen I have
written a useless little notice of your book on trees [Attis], which comes to this,
that it needs an encyclopaedic study of burial customs (many of which give
vegetation no chance, as cave-burial) and of tree-worship, before one can
accept the hypothesis. This is probably obvious. In one remark of
Macdonald’s, he seems to make against your view; they do worship under a
tree, if not, they erect a shade. That is, shade
is what they want, in that climate, and a tree comes cheapest. By every old
Border cottage, hall, or burial site, you’ll find an ash. Ancestral spirit? Not much; a Scots Act of Parliament
ordered them to be planted for spear shafts. The various Greek gods’
‘dendritis’ need looking up, I think. My own opinion is that trees
were worshipped for all sorts of different reasons, yours among them very
likely. . . . I hope the review is not Rude, like the
fetich stone one of unseemly memory. . . .
ALS undated [1888; refers to This Mortal Coil]. Dear Mrs Allen, It
is, usually, the wife of a Literary gentleman who
suffers when the author’s mind is vexed with shallow wit, so I owe you an
apology for inadvertently suggesting that I fancied Mr Massinger a caricature
of me.
Alas – I never had that hero’s beauty, bravery, and luck at
roulette: and I really never dreamed of anything but the most vacant chaff.
Even if I had been conceited enough to fancy that there was any of me in Mr
Massinger it would only have diverted me. The genus of poetarum minorum is not
irritabilis as all that comes to. I am so sorry, sincerely, that I have made
such a [?]: and I hope Mr Allen is convinced that nothing would ever cause me
to suspect, or expect, anything but the greatest kindness from him, even if it
comes to pitching sacred stones at each other….
ALS ‘Jun 29’ [1888] Dear Allen You must be very well if you can stand H.S. when he isn’t!
However I hope you do him some good, or at least he/you do no harm. Your
article I have not seen. I daresay the little folk of the day will make a
hubbub about it, which it will divert you to observe. Very glad I am not in it:
a fourth-rate Pendennis, who can’t write novels is my form.
My Myths book is being printed… Have you a very spare fiver? A poor cove
called Cobban, a literary gent, has been in Hospital for months with stricture.
I have advanced a variety of mites, but Henley and I thought a small assortment
of fivers would keep his very frail barque afloat. I daresay yours are all
engaged; don’t mind about it if they are. He does not know. I hate
dunning people, but I suppose littery chaps must occasionally help the weak
brethren. He has a kind of cleverness, a good deal of it, but gets no recognition,
and, I presume, can’t write in his present state. Married,
of course. Yours…
ALS undated [probably 1890]. Dear Allen I am making sumptuous hay of
you. The beggars who have gravestones don’t worship them, the beggars who
worship stones don’t bury under gravestones: see
ALS ‘Aug 8’ [1892]. Dear Allen I have
noticed your complaint in the Athenaeum,
July 30, without mentioning names, in ‘The Ship’. It is not chaff,
but I seriously think that it is a mistake to make novels the vehicle of some
special discussion – what you were
discussing I have no guess, but probably it was something to do with the sexes.
I hope you don’t mind, if so, glad if you can let me know, I’ll cut
it out. I am very sorry you have had your work in vain,
indeed I’ve had the same thing happen. I wrote a book on Hebrew History
(?) and then perceived the folly of a man who did not know the language, and
dropped it. I know another fellow who dropped a novel because when it was done
he thought ill of it. But why don’t you say what you have to say in a
not-novel, but straight-forward? My notion is that one can’t put what one
really wants to say on a practical matter better than in a plain statement.
That is all that I have said, but if you don’t want comment just say so
– post card will suffice.
ALS ‘Feb 11.’ [1895? Probably reference to WWD.] Dear Allen Many thanks I
hope you have got it off your mind, now! Personally I prefer opinions in
Treatises, not in novels, and I would hear you gladly on cuckoos, rather than
on cocks. . . .
Cambridge
Cambridge University Library
Many thanks to Barbara Arnett Melchiori for supplying some of these summaries.
Dictated LS to Longman dated ‘9 Sept.’ Longman seems to have
requested Allen's opinion regarding the publication of a book by Kidd.
“If you care for my verdict, in spite of these disadvantages, I should
say a volume of such papers ought not to hurt. . . "
"I should think it would probably be well for Mr. Kidd to let the
world know that his social doctrines are founded on adequate biological
data… I think the essays would be improved if a few of the more
colloquial terms were removed and a little more elevation given in places to
the style and language. If you wish it I would return the article with some
such passages underlined as seem to me to call for correction." Add.8069/A20.
Correspondence
between GA (seven letters) and Benjamin Kidd (copy of one letter), [1896 &
undated]. In
Add.8069/A14-23 & K31, as follows:
LS
dictated.
TLS.
TLS.
TLS.
ALS (copy) from Kidd
dated
"You will I am sure forgive these vigorous remarks and take them as a
tribute to the impression the book has produced."
TLS
from GA dated
Letter
from GA dated 26 Feb. [1895] to Kidd. Handwritten by Nellie
Allen. Mainly concerned with discussion of sources of
GA's article on fish. "I hope you will read The Woman Who Did
and talk about it or write of it. It is a critical venture for me, and I don't
want it to fall flat with the public. So you will be really obliging me even by
differing from it". [implicit invitation to write
a review]
TLS
from GA to Kidd dated " Sept”. GA sends
letter to Kidd to accompany corrections. Concludes: " What a brave man you
are, to poach on my preserves, and then ask the original owner of the estate
how you had better prepare your bag for market![Exclamation
mark added by penstroke, probably not on one of the early typewriters]
TLS
from GA to Kidd dated 26 Sept.?? Finds "The London
Window" much better written than "The Eggs" so he must have been
invited to revise that too.
TLS from GA to Kidd. Undated
- probably late March 1896. Accompanies MS of Evolution
of God. "I attach importance to the retention of the
title".
Note
from Nellie Allen saying that GA will be delighted for Kidd to look over GA's
book. Probably Evolution of Idea and date probably
late March 1896.
Letters between GA and Charles Darwin, and mentions of GA by other
correspondents of
10971
10973
10996 To G. J. Romanes, 11 June [1877],
ALS 4pp Published in: ML 1:367 Provenance: APS 516
11004 From G. J. Romanes, 16 June [1877] . Thinks
Grant Allen has not made out his point [in Physiological aesthetics
(1877)], but his fundamental principle probably has much truth. -
Provenance: Romanes (1896):55
11420 From Grant Allen, 13
Mar [1878],
11432 From Grant Allen, 19 Mar
[1878],
11633 From J. A. Allen,
11832 From Karl Hochberg,
11873
From Grant Allen, 12 Feb 1879, 22 Bonchurch Rd. Has sent copy of his new book, Colour-sense
[1879]; in anticipation of criticism, he justifies his reliance on recorded
observations rather than experiments, by the heavy demands of his career as a
journalist. ALS 3pp Provenance: DAR 159
11891
To [Grant Allen], [before
11894
From Grant Allen, 21 Feb [1879],
11967 To [Grant Allen],
11975 From Raphael Meldola,
12062 To Grant Allen, 26
May [1879], Down. Has GA seen an article on GA's Colour-sense by a great
man, J. R. L. Delboeuf, in Revue Scientifique
12068 From Grant Allen,
12143 From Ernst Krause,
12150 To [Ernst Krause], 12
July [1879], Down. Grieved to hear that Grant Allen has been
accused of plagiarism. ALS 4pp Provenance:
12168 To G. J. Romanes,
13055 To [Grant Allen],
13057
From Grant Allen, 19 Feb [1881],
ALS 2pp damaged. Provenance: DAR 159
13536 To G. J. Romanes,
13545
From Grant Allen, 10 Dec [1881],
13594
To [Grant Allen],
13600 To G. J. Romanes,
13627 To G. J. Romanes,
13633 From G. C. Robertson,
To G. J. Romanes,
13638 To G. J. Romanes, 23
[Jan 1882], Down. Discusses present of microscope to Grant
Allen. Spencer had apparently suggested some other arrangement which
would had spoilt the ‘graciosity’ of the
present. ALS 1p Provenance: APS 613
13644 To G. J. Romanes, 25
[Jan 1882?], Down. Agrees about Grant Allen affair. ALS 1p
Provenance: APS 569
13736 From Grant Allen,
Churchill
Archives Centre,
Seven letters from GA to W.T. Stead.
[fol. 1 ALS] The Nook,
I have read M Catchpool’s letter with dismay and amazement. That an open
apologist of our vile existing system, which embraces as component parts of
itself, prostitution, wife-beating, and the disgusting disclosures of the
divorce court, should venture to use such language of the advocates of a higher
and purer moral platform, and of a deeper recognition of marital
responsibility, strikes me dumb with indignation. Does the man know anything of
the horrors of prostitution? Of the east end slums? Of infant mortality? Of the condition of
wives among the degraded classes? If he does, and then dares to palliate
and excuse the system that produces them, I can only say, my moral ideas and
his have no common ground. He can never have thought about these
subjects at all: and I earnestly hope you will send him on this letter.
We shall be delighted to see you whenever you can come, to discuss rationally
all national plans for the bettering of humanity. In haste, Yours
ever, Grant Allen. PS. No truce with prostitution or female slavery!
[fol.2 LS in wife’s hand] Villa
du Palmiers, Mustapha Superieur Algers Algeria. Novr.
20th [1887] My Dear Mr Stead, You will perceive from my address that
I am in the wilds of
[fol. 3 ALS] The Nook,
Could you mention the matter to any other journalists.
If so, I should be very much obliged. I send two or three copies, in case you
could. But of course I know how busy you are. Yours very sincerely, Grant
Allen.
[fol. 4 ALS] 2
Colonists are the thinnest-skinned people on earth. I have lived more than half
my life in two colonies—Canada and Jamaica—and only a quarter of it
in England: yet I never wrote anything about either colony in print without
hurting some tender susceptibilities, whereas I never have had anybody
[illegible] with what I had to say about England, though I suppose, like other
people, I must often make mistakes. In this particular case, however, I think I right and my critic wrong. It is all a relative question
as to what you consider civilised and what you consider wild; and writing for a
mainly English audience I spoke from an English standpoint. But perhaps it
would be best to suppress my two tentative political articles, which only
express the views I have derived from my own friends and
correspondents—landowners in Canadian country towns.
I should be very glad if you could kindly spare me five minutes for a short
talk on Saturday or Monday. I am now in town for two or three days, and not
likely to be so again till Spring, and there are one
or two questions I should like to ask as to possible future work. Yours very faithfully,
Grant Allen.
[fol. 5 TLS] The Croft, Hind Head, Haslemere. (Private.
Please don’t quote.) [early 1895?] My dear
Stead, I am venturing to send you herewith a set of advance proofs of my new
book, ‘The Woman Who Did.’
It is the only book, in fiction at least, which I have written throughout
wholly and solely to satisfy my own taste and my own conscience. I am extremely
anxious that you should do me the favour to read it. You are one of those who
have always misunderstood my attitude and my objects. As a rule, I do not mind
such misunderstanding, because it comes from the wretched creatures who spend their lives in lounging about the Empire or the
[fol. 6 TLS] The Croft, Hind Head, Haslemere. Feb. 22. 95. My dear Stead, (No,
I will not Mr. you, though you Mr. me. Not by me shall our old
friendly intercourse be permitted to tail off so.) Yes, we shall be very glad
to see you whenever you can look in; and if I am in town, I will call to see
you. I am very sorry to learn what you tell me of Grant Richards. I will speak
to him quietly of the matter, without saying that you have written to me. It is
very kind of you to mention it to me, and I will do my best, for his own sake, to make him change his ways. It would, of
course, be a great grief to us if you found yourself unable to keep him. But I
hope he will see how foolishly he is acting; and indeed, without having heard
anything about it from you, we had felt he often seemed to treat his duties
lightly. Thank you so much for giving us the opportunity of remonstrating
quietly with him.
In great haste—I am up to my eyes in Woman-who-Did correspondence. Yours
very sincerely, Grant Allen.
[fol. 7 TLS] The Croft, Hind Head, Haslemere. Feb. 26. 95. My dear Stead, For
two or three days I have been meaning to write to you to say that, as other
reviews roll in, and I realise more the vast gulf that separates me from other
men on this question, I have constantly felt how much obliged I ought to have
been to you for your tolerant notice. And now, before I could find time to
write, Eason’s letter comes in, a monument of bigotry, and surely the
most astounding business communication ever yet penned by the secretary of a
limited company. I can only say, it gives me a worse
opinion than I ever before held of Irish Catholicism. I return it herewith, and
of course will make no public reference to it. But I wish you could mention in
the papers that they have interdicted your number; that should surely do good rather than harm to both of us.
I spoke to Grant Richards of the subject on which you wrote, without telling
him you had written; and I hope you will find he is more attentive in future.
Thank you once more for your kindness in hinting it.
In great haste—I am overwhelmed with letters, (mostly sympathetic, from
women). Yours very sincerely, Grant Allen.
Chadwyck-Healey Arcbive of British Publishers on Microfilm
The following archives in this series on microfilm have letters to/from
Allen or references to him:
Grant Richards Archives: About 200 references. See the index volume by
Alison Ingram for a complete listing.
Reel l
Letters to and about GA. Only significant content is noted here
(ie A1 in Ingram).
[fols. 25-6] Publication details for Evolution Idea of God in
[fols. 40] GA asked £200 for the
[fols. 54] And £80 with illustrations for the German translation rights of An African Millionaire.
[fols. 207] And asked £50 for the German translation rights
of Evolution of the Idea of God.
[fols. 346] For the French rights of An
African Millionaire 40 guineas.
Reel
23
Letterbook 1915-16
Correspondence with Broadwest Films over film of WWD.
2 Sep 1915 ‘.. a new edition at sixpence…
It will have an entirely new wrapper which will be designed in consultation
with the people who have acquired the Moving Picture rights. They are taking a
great deal of trouble and are sparing no expense in the matter of the
production of the film; indeed in spite of difficulties and warnings from the
authorities they sent a Company to
GR and Nellie Allen were both delighted with the result. There was also mention
of a play.
Reel
45
Private Letterbook vols 1 and 2, 1910-12
Nothing of interest.
Reel 46
Author’s Ledger vols. 1 & 2. 1897-1906
Nothing of interest.
Reel 50
Correspondence with Grant Richards from
Grant Allen, Jerrard Grant Allen, Nellie Allen (ie G Correspondence
Incoming in Ingram).
Copy of a typewritten letter dated
Dear Mr Henley A great many years ago you showed me some kindness, and I
was grateful for it. I have always admired your work so much and praised it so
frankly that the tone the National Observer adopts towards me has
grieved me not a little. When you have a friendly feeling towards a man and a
sympathy with his work, you can’t help being sorry that the feeling is
not reciprocated. Now I have just read with so much mental distress the article
in your last number that I can’t help writing and speaking to you about
it. I known I am unwise: I know one oughtn’t to wear one’s heart
upon one’s sleeve; yet I can’t resist it. If you didn’t write
the article yourself (as I suspect you did) I wish you would kindly forward
this letter to the person who did. When I wrote to the Athenaeum, I was
thinking of a previous article of yours about “the man who was not
allowed”; and I said to myself, “Surely a
cry from the heart, like this, will disarm a critic with any heart at
all”. It seems I was mistaken. At a moment of profound depression, when
life appears to me hardly endurable, your article comes as a further
aggravation, and stabs me once more with a stab that I feel undeserved and
cruel. My work and my personality may be worth as little as you think—and
heaven knows I have had to do distasteful work enough in the hard fight for
bread; but I think it is unmanly to strike a man through the tenderest and most
sacred feelings as you or your critic have done with me; and I thank God I
myself never struck anyone so, and never could strike them. I wrote a book
which I profoundly believed to be a piece of work for the good of humanity. I
may have greatly over-estimated my own powers; but still, I believed it so. It
was to me something sacred. With a great sacrifice I decided at last to
suppress it, for my wife’s sake and my child’s, and to go on
writing Duchesses of Powysland. Now, however wrong I may be, I am still a man,
with the usual claim to courtesy and consideration. One would have thought that
the exact moment of what was obviously a great and bitter sorrow would not be
choosen by any person as the moment for stinging a soul already despairing, and
making a crisis of acute misery still acuter and bitterer. I sincerely trust
that no critic will ever inflict upon you such misery as you have inflicted
upon me; and as the object of the writer was evidently to give pain, it may be
some consolation to him to // know how thoroughly he has succeeded. I am a very
earnest man, who takes life very earnestly; and I desire to do and say some
good things in my generation. It is because I have some beliefs which seem to
me important that I continue to say from time to time things that rouse this
strange hostility in others. I believe I am almost cured now; but as long as I
live I shall be proud to remember that I never used my pen to hurt another as
you or your contributor have used yours to hurt and crush me at a moment of
peculiar and profound bitterness. Yours very sincerely, Grant Allen.
Writer’s cramp compels type-writer.
Beach House Hotel, Westgate-on-Sea.
Mrs Emmett’s Cookham Dean Berks July 4th
[189?] My dear Tom, [this is Thomas Webber Jerrard, b.1843, his brother
in law] Grant Richards writes me that he is now thinking at last of putting
into execution a scheme he has long had in his head of starting in business on
his own account as a publisher. I think do not know at the present moment any
more legitimate and promising investment for money. If I were a capitalist, I
would gladly back him for a considerable sum; as it is, I shall do what is
equivalent—show my confidence in him by giving him two or three of my
books, which are the same to me as money. In the first place, of course, any
book of mine nowadays brings me in with certainty a certain amount, more or
less; and therefore brings in the publisher a certain proportionate amount of
commission or profit. In the second place, per contra, the sale of a
book of mine depends largely, amongst other things, upon the skill, address,
connection, and business push of the publisher. Therefore, if I give a book to
Grant Richards to publish, it means that I have confidence he will not do worse
for it than any other publisher. I also propose to put my own Grantie with him
as a subordinate, and in time to purchase for him a share in the business; I
may even arrange to buy a share beforehand, holding it for him till he is of
age. All this will show you how far I think well of Grant Richards’s //
abilities and prospects. I am not a publisher; but as you can readily
understand, I have not been writing books so long without gaining some insight
into the nature of the publishing trade. All the new publishers who have
started in a small way on a little capital (mostly borrowed) during the last
ten years, are doing well; provided they have been men with an adequate
knowledge of books and authors, such as Grant Richards possesses. The
publishing trade is rather a special one in this way—that three elements
enter largely into it. First, you must know the trade, and have connections
with retail booksellers; this Grant Richards has got through his training at
Stead’s and at Simpkin’s. Second, you must have a good taste in literature,
and a knowledge of what books are likely to suit the public; this Grant
Richards possesses to a singular degree; he has spotted early and beforehand,
both a s a reviewer and otherwise, almost all the most successful new authors
in the last six years or so. His judgment of a book, from the purely business
as opposed to the literary point of view, is well-nigh infallible. He has an
instinct for the sort of thing that will please the public; and that is one of
the most important qualities in a publisher, who has to gauge and foresee that
taste beforehand. Third, and last of all, you must have a good personal //
connection among authors in order to induce them to publish with you. This
Grant Richards has got, partly through me, partly through Stead’s office,
partly through his own assiduous desire to cultivate men of letters. A man who
wants to start as a publisher must be able to get several well-known names to
begin with., so as to make a good list, and attract
other and younger authors. Men won’t take their books to a publisher
unless they see he is publishing for respected and established authors. Grant
Richards at his first set-off will be able to start with several well-known
names, and to produce a good and varied list of “Forthcoming Publications.”
As far as I can judge, this first “Announcements” will be most
satisfactory.
More than in most trades, the older houses get stogged up with unsaleable old
stock, and have their capital locked up in fairly sound but slow-selling
standard works. Hence, if a new man has go and energy, and a connection among
authors, he generally succeeds in attracting to himself many of the new and
rising authors. Once caught, they mostly continue to publish with the same
firm, because of its convenience. Now Grant Richards seems to me to possess
just those Jerrard qualities of push and energy which made your own business
go; while he has also the special knowledge of books, the special power of
rapid judgment, the special touch on the general reader’s pulse, and the
special // acquaintance with authors and journalists, which are peculiarly
necessary for this particular business. Other men, like
Excuse this long letter. I waned to let you see how the matter strikes a man
closely connected with the trade himself, and ready to let the sale of more
than one of his own books stand or fall by Grant Richards’s success or
failure.
United love from Nellie and myself to all at Laine House.
Yours ever affectionately, Grant Allen [TW Jerrard put in £200 as a result of
this letter; GA put in £750.]
The Croft, Hindhead, Haslemere. Oct 11. 1898. Dear Sir,
… I write to acknowledge receipt of your Company’s cheque
for £25, in
payment for an option on my forthcoming novel, “A World at Bay.” In
return for this sum, I agree to give your Company the option of commissioning
me for this story at any time within the next six months, at the price of
Fifteen Hundred Pounds…. Furthermore, I contract to let you have the
first refusal for your Company of all other novels over the length of 30,000
words produced by me for a period of five years after the publication by your
Company of this novel, “A World at Bay”, at a price equal to that
of any other bona fide offer made me by any other publisher… [This novel
was either never written or appeared under another title.]
The Croft, Hindhead, Haslemere. Wednesday [1898?]. My
dear Grantie, You will see from the enclosed note from Greenhough Smith that
Newnes consents to my terms of £1000 for British and American serial rights of
the 12 short stories. I retain book rights. I have therefore written an
official letter, que voila. Govern yourself accordingly. … I wish
you could do anything beforehand to impress reviewers with the idea that Linnet
is a book of importance. It ought to be reviewed on the day of issue….
The Croft, Hindhead, Haslemere.
The Croft, Hindhead, Haslemere.
The Croft, Hindhead, Haslemere.
[no heading, no date] Dear Sir, Kindly excuse
delay—I have been frightfully busy. Air and soil of Hind Head are in my
opinion the best in
Cookham Dean. Wednesday [1897?]. My dear
Grantie, … If you leave me in the lurch, and never start at all,
after setting me to work on these two books, you shall answer for it with your
red and white corpuscles. The time you suggest is full short; and, as Stevenson
remarked, “’tis the work of an elephant”; but having several
times beated elephants easy in a fair competition, I will undertake to do it;
and when I engage, I keep my engagements, unless I die meanwhile. You shall
have the earlier portion of Paris by
Oct. 15, law of Medes and Persians; and you shall have the last word of
The muffin-man is going past!
The rest when we meet. Glad you at least see land ahead. Yours
ever, G.A.
[The following are extracts from numerous letters and cards from Jerrard Grant
Allen, GA’s son and Grant Richards’ cousin. Confusingly,
‘Grantie’ was the familiar name of both:]
Terry’s Theatre,
Terry’s Theatre,
Terry’s Theatre,
Terry’s Theatre,
Mr Jerrard Grant Allen’s
By Sept 1906, JGA was manager of the Criterion Theatre,
In Dec 1908 JGA is trying to bring Grant Richards in on a business called
‘The Zig Zag Puzzle Co.’
In Feb 1910 JGA was administering, or working for, ‘The Festival of
Empire and Pageant of London’ to be held May-July 1910 at the Crystal
Palace, profits to charity.
A letter of
Directly I get to
With regard to the [illegible] trades people. Malts
However, now I can get about and get ahead. My committee insists on the first
?Wednesday of next month – meanwhile I shall move up to New York and try
and look about for some further work in case of accident.
Possibly by next, any way by next mail but one, I shall be better able to tell
the position….
Returning insurance document. Speaks
of needing a little more help ‘when dealing with my creditors’.
Violet and I are working and in money. Prospects better than
for many years. Best not to send ‘every available penny over to
you directly’. Speaks of Violet and renting a place
‘for her Reggie’. He has made a hit as a publicity man.
’we think vaguely of returning to
Undated. ‘The O.F. Syndicate
Ltd. My dear Grant, I have just had advice from
Extracts from letters from Nellie Allen to GR:
Various notes in 1906 about small sums in rights, cheap edition of WWD, references to renovations at the
Croft and ‘my flat’. She apparently had an apartment at 35
In 1907 there was still discussion about the £1000 lent to Lane. ‘You know he paid £500 when we asked for
it and 5 per cent. I think for the loan, so he really isn’t under a great
obligation to us’.
19
Correspondence ends March 1918.
Reel 317
Private Letterbooks (ie C1 and C2 in Ingram)
Letters dealing entirely with Grant Richards’ personal and financial
affairs in 1910-11, when he was recovering from bankruptcy. Various
letters to Nellie Allen, his aunt, showing that that they were on very friendly
terms.
Reel 274
Letterbook Vol. 2 1900-01 (ie A2 in Ingram)
GR reports to the tax authorities that not one of the Guide Books sold up
to the amount of the advance on royalties.
Reel 279 (ie A7 in Ingram)
Small sums to Nellie Allen for translations, eg 3 guineas for translating An African Millionaire into Danish.
Reel 280 (ie A8 in Ingram). Nothing of interest.
Reel 281 (ie A9 in Ingram)
But Lane refused to play and so GR wrote:
Reel 282 (ie A10 in Ingram)
Reel 319 (ie E1 and E2 in Ingram): Publication Ledger 1897-1909. Nothing of interest.
Chapel Hill, North
Carolina
Manuscripts Department, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill.
A.P. Watt & Co. Records, #11036. These are
business letters, contracts etc between GA, Watt (his agent) and various
publishers and editors. They are of little interest except for these bits of
information about serial rights:
In
September 1892 sold the rights of Under Sealed Orders to be serialised
in The Home Magazine, first number to be issued in Nov or Dec 1892, MS
to be delivered around September 1893.. The publisher Chatto and Windus was to
receive £450 for these rights. This fell through. The Home Magazine: A
Family Magazine for Home
According to the Watt
Papers, the rights to a story ‘Rennell’s Remorse’ were bought
for the Pictorial or Pictorial World in October 1891. Nothing
more is known of this. The rights sold for 100 guineas.
In
a A.P. Watt memo of
A
note from GA to Watt dated “
Chicago
H.G. Wells collection, University of Illinois Library.
Letters from GA to H.G. Wells (A-78).
TLS dated in another hand “June 11.95” thanking Wells for a copy of
The Time Machine and giving his views of it.
TLS dated in another hand “
TLS, mutilated; half a page only dated in another hand “Jane [?] Oct 1895” commenting on Wells’s Select Conversations
with an Uncle.
TLS dated Oct.4.95 asserting that The British Barbarians was written
“six years ago” and hoping he would not be thought a plagiarist.
Also: ‘I find it difficult now to get leave to review books. The editors
are afraid of my mania for admiring really admirable work, even when it comes
from young and comparatively little known men; and they decline to let me
review for them. “All his geese are swans,” they say; owing to
their own biological ignorance of the difference between a goose and a cygnet.
. . . ’
TLS dated
Four ALS from Nellie Allen
to Wells, none fully dated but all written after GA’s death. (A-79). Of little interest.
Letters to Grant Allen, as follows:
ALS from Francis Galton dated
ALS from Alfred Russel Wallace dated
ALS from Wallace dated
ALS from Wallace dated
ALS from Wallace dated
ALS from Wallace dated
ALS from Dean Albert Basil Orme Wilberforce dated
Two of the Wallace letters are printed in Clodd. The other three have been
printed and discussed by Gerald Levin, q.v.
Holdings
of Darwin/Allen correspondence. This is all listed under
Dorchester
Dorset County Museum
Two letters to Thomas Hardy, 1895?-1896. In Thomas Hardy Memorial
Collection.
National Library of
Six letters. Undated.
Autograph. Recipients include: Mr Russell; William and Robert Chambers. One
letter mutilated: signature cut off. Dep.341/100-101; 103;
107.
Chambers’s Journal published serials of In All Shades, This
Mortal Coil, Dumaresq’s Daughter, Blood Royal and At
Market Value. The letters are minor business notes relating certainly to
the first two of these, and perhaps others. One letter gives a glimpse of
GA’s writing method: “Some of the scenes are already in part on
paper - I always work that way, doing the points of interest first,
and afterwards dovetailing in the necessary connecting links. . . . When once I
have got my plot and characters vividly present to my own mind, I write easily
and rapidly. I need hardly say that apparent discrepancies or improbabilities
in the plot will be worked out or explained away in practical detail.”
Not known which serial this relates to.
Correspondence between GA, Jerrard Grant Allen and Grant
Richards. Mostly about JGA’s business dealings well after his
father’s death: he seemed to have various business interests and at one
point was a theatrical manager. Later he fell into some financial difficulties
and was threatened with bankruptcy during WW1. He was in
Haslemere,
MS Winifred Storr Diary, 1898-9. The
Public
Library
Uncataloged
correspondence (124 letters) to Nellie Allen from friends and admirers at the
time of the death of GA and some minor miscellaneous items and offprints.
Brotherton Collection, Brotherton Library,
Fifteen ALS, TLS and dictated LS (three of them incomplete)
to Edward Clodd, [1885?-1899 & undated]. With a typescript copy of a
letter from GA to Franklin Richards [187-?], which is printed in Clodd, Grant
Allen, pp.40-43. In Clodd Correspondence. However,
Clodd describes these letters as written to his (GA’s) mother-in-law, Mrs
Jerrard.
Clodd Diary, 1876-1906. Originals and typewritten transcript.
TLS dated ‘Feb. 18’ [1893 added] is addressed from the Hotel du
Cap,
TLS incomplete dated ’December 29 [1892 added] is addressed from
ACS ‘November 14’ [1887 postmarked] is addressed from Villa du
Palmier, Mustapha Superieur, Algers,
ALS November 7 [1888] mentions Force and Energy as newly published.
‘I’m afraid it’s flogging a dead horse. Now
that the excitement of seeing it through the press has finally subsided I feel
more hopeless than ever about my chance of converting anybody’.
Addressed from
”
TL (mutilated) dated ‘Sept. 14’ says that ‘we have to leave
this house on the 28th.’
TLS dated ‘
ALS dated ‘Alwington Kingston Ont
LS dictated dated ‘March 17th’. ‘Longman writes me
that “Force and Energy” is to be converted into wallpaper. This is
enough to prevent one from ever trying to do any good work’.
Six letters
from Nellie Allen to Edward Clodd. In Clodd Correspondence.
”April 9 [1900]. I have finished reading the Memoir and am delighted with it. It
gives such a clear idea of my darling’s beautiful personal character, and
of the hard struggles that he had to bear. . . . I have been wondering if it
would have been better to omit the sad letter to Croom Robertson?
It was, as you say, written in a depressed mood, and was really not his usual
state of mind. He really had a much higher idea of his novels that many people
had, and used to say how much thought and work he had put into his later ones.
He believed this would be recognised some day.”
Letter dated ‘Aug 12’ [probably 1896] says that ‘Grantie
spent Bank holiday here and left next day full of his new business scheme. I
have little faith in it but as he doesn’t risk anything, I think it best
not to interfere. I asked him to inquire of Grant Richards if it was to be
… of a partnership with him and he said, he couldn’t quite say. He
might find it undesirable to take a partner.’ [Grant Richards, Author
Hunting, says that the young ‘Grantie’ joined him as a worker
in his new publishing venture in Jan 1897]. ****
Two letters to Edmund
Gosse, [1887?1894]. In Gosse
Correspondence.
”February 3 [1887]”. Commiserates
with Gosse during controversy over Gosse’s classi