{"id":2259,"date":"2016-06-08T11:21:09","date_gmt":"2016-06-08T16:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nonsolusblog.wordpress.com\/?p=2259"},"modified":"2016-06-08T11:21:09","modified_gmt":"2016-06-08T16:21:09","slug":"larry-mcmurtrys-personal-collection-of-h-g-wells","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/2016\/06\/08\/larry-mcmurtrys-personal-collection-of-h-g-wells\/","title":{"rendered":"Larry McMurtry’s personal collection of H. G. Wells"},"content":{"rendered":"
We’ve recently finished processing <\/span>Items from the Larry McMurtry collection of H.G. Wells<\/span><\/span><\/a>. The items in this collection formed a part of Larry McMurtry’s personal collection of H. G. Wells and includes some of H. G. Wells<\/span>\u00a0personal correspondence, publishers’ correspondence and records,\u00a0items related to the production and marketing of the film\u00a0<\/span>Things to Come<\/i><\/span>, and drawings, advertisement material, and signed books by and related to H. G. Wells. \u00a0Larry McMurtry is perhaps best known for his novel\u00a0<\/span>Lonesome Dove<\/i><\/span>\u00a0(1985), for which he won a Pulitzer Prize, and for his Academy Award-winning screenplay for\u00a0<\/span>Brokeback Mountain\u00a0<\/i><\/span>(2005).<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
Herbert George Wells (1866-1946) was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, screenwriter, and political figure, who revolutionized modern science fiction with works such as\u00a0<\/span>The Time Machine<\/i><\/span>,\u00a0<\/span>The Invisible Man<\/i><\/span>,<\/span>\u00a0<\/i><\/span>and\u00a0<\/span>The War of the Worlds<\/i><\/span>.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
Try your hand at deciphering Wells\u2019 handwriting in this photo depicting some of his letters to Naomi Mitchison, Scottish novelist and poet.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\"Letter-1.jpg\"\"Letter-3.jpg\"<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
In addition to Wells\u2019 personal correspondence, this collection also contains around ninety letters, contracts, and financial records detailing the particulars of publishing his work.\u00a0These letters provide fascinating insights into the relationships between the author and his publishers as well as between British and American publishers.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
For example, the correspondence traces a misunderstanding over the royalty payment for the inclusion of\u00a0<\/span>The Island of Dr. Moreau<\/i><\/span>\u00a0in\u00a0<\/span>Seven Famous Novels.<\/i><\/span>\u00a0\u00a0The situation got rather tense, as when Dodd, Mead and Company wrote the following to A.S. Watt of A.P. Watt & Son on July 13, 1934:<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cWe are sufficiently old friends so that I feel that I can tell you quietly [sic]<\/span>\u00a0frankly that I was considerably annoyed and genuinely surprised that we were not consulted concerning the inclusion of THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU [sic] in the Knopf anthology. \u2026Is not the original fault yours in not having cleared up the matter at the start, rather than leaving it to us to make a claim for our rights when the book was on the verge of publication? I see no alternative but to deduct the 10% commission from the author\u2019s share of the earnings and hold it here for the present until you have straightened out the situation\u2026.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
Another letter, written\u00a0on May 29, 1947\u00a0from Bennett A. Cerf, of Random House, to Howard Lewis, of Dodd, Mead & Company,\u00a0reluctantly withdraws Random House\u2019s objection to Collins publishing\u00a0<\/span>Tono Bungay<\/i><\/span>\u00a0in Canada.\u00a0 As seen in the below quote, Random House’s frustration is clear.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cI see that the course of the\u00a0<\/span>Tono Bungay<\/i><\/span>\u00a0proceedings is taking its pre-determined and completely predictable way.\u00a0 By this time, I guess we all ought to be used to the situation, but somehow it still astonishes me to see how blandly English publishers can ask American publishers to waive foreign or subsidiary rights and, in almost the same breath, threaten dire legal proceedings if we ship a handful of copies of a book on which they control the rights into India or South Africa:<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
However, none of us here wishes to be disagreeable about the\u00a0<\/span>Tono Bungay<\/i><\/span>\u00a0business, particularly since the English publisher is Collins, one of the nicest.” LV<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We’ve recently finished processing Items from the Larry McMurtry collection of H.G. Wells. The items in this collection formed a part of Larry McMurtry’s personal collection of H. G. Wells and includes some of H. G. Wells\u00a0personal correspondence, publishers’ correspondence and records,\u00a0items related to the production and marketing of the film\u00a0Things to Come, and drawings, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":115,"featured_media":2270,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/115"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}