October 31 Monday – In Florence Sam wrote to Frank E. Bliss of the American Publishing Co., his old publisher.
I hear you are issuing a $1 edition of Tom Sawyer. I believe I have a 10 per cent royalty on that book. If so, go ahead; but I cannot consent to let your firm reduce the retail price of any other of my books without first making special contracts with me.
Sam wrote that he’d always felt the royalties on the other books were unfair, that he’d agreed through “unjust means” and that he’d been sufficiently damaged by them already [MTLTP 325].
Sam also wrote to Frederick J. Hall, responding to his Oct. 19 letter (not extant).
Your news isn’t entirely cheerful, but we will look for better next time.
If you have my 6 contracts with the American Publishing Co., please send them to Mr. Whitmore. If you haven’t them, and if Whitford hasn’t them, then they are in Fredonia, among the stuff which Webster carried off.
The rest of Sawyer Abroad went to you some time ago. If Mrs. Dodge wants it, let her have it. It falls nearly 10,000 words short of what she wanted for $5,000; but if she isn’t willing to pay $5,000, let her pay $4,000.[MTLTP 323-4].
Sam added that though the piece was finished and he’d tried to leave the “improprieties all out; if I didn’t Mrs. Dodge can scissor them out.”
Note: It hadn’t been that long that Sam wanted $6,000, and was willing to forego Dodge’s St. Nicholas magazine for children. Then he allowed Dodge to edit the piece, which then ran serialized in the magazine Nov. 1893 to Apr. 1894. Dodge cut out all references to religion, sweating, death, and added or rephrased items, angering Sam, who was quoted as saying, “God Almighty Himself has no right to put words in my mouth that I never used.” The Webster & Co. edition and the Chatto & Windus editions restored the excised portions.
Sam also wrote to Franklin G. Whitmore about American Publishing Co., disclosing his letter to Hall about the matter.
I once offered to let the elder Bliss issue cheap editions at 10 per cent., but he dissuaded me, saying they would damage the sale of the others; but his son goes ahead without asking any questions [MTP].