WCP2369

Letter (WCP2369.2259)

[1]1, 2

Marine Villa3

Freshwater

Isle of Wight

Sept[ember] 14/[18]78

My dear Sir,

I hear the M. S.4 of the Australia5, duly reached Charing Cross6, and your letter with List of Maps. and Chapters has been sent on to me here.

I fear that the method[?] [2] of payment you suggest would not work. as so[?] many of the expenses connected with the publication must be divided among the six volumes of the series and they will not all sell equally. but probably if I gave you a royalty7 on the selling price it would meet[?] your views.

[3]8 and you would then share according to the success of the book.

The price of the book at first will be 21/-9 but it may afterwards be desirable to make it less.

Will you think over this and let me hear from you, at your leisure.

Yours ver[]y faithfully | Edward Stanford10 [signature]

Alfred R Wallace Esq[uire]

1
The first page of the letter is edged with a black border, an indication of a period of mourning. Victoriana Magazine <http://www.victoriana.com/VictorianPeriod/mourning.htm> [accessed 10 March 2015].
2
Text in another hand in the top right of corner reads "404".
3

Marine villas on the Isle of Wight became popular in the nineteenth century. Development at Freshwater was influenced by its associations with the poet Alfred Lord Tennyson. <https://www.iwight.com/azservices/documents/1324-Designed-Landscape-HEAP.pdf> [accessed 7 July 2015].

In 1879, Stanford published a Pocket map of the Isle of Wight. <http://www.geographicus.com/P/AntiqueMap/IsleofWight-stanford-1879> [accessed 7 July 2015].

4
M.S.: manuscript.
5
Australasia, edited and extended by Alfred R. Wallace, with Ethnographical Appendix by A. H. Keane. Stanford's Compendium of Geography and Travel. Edward Stanford, London, May 1879. pp. i-xx, 1-672.
6
Stanford's business premises were in Charing Cross Road, London. ODNB.
7
Royalty: a sum of money paid to an author for each book sold.
8
Text in another hand in the top right corner reads "405".
9

21 shillings, or one guinea. The equivalent of £1.05 in decimal currency.

In 1880, this would have had the same spending worth of £50.73 in 2005. <http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/currency/results.asp#mid> [accessed 7 July 2015].

10
Stanford, Edward (1827-1904). Map maker and publisher. ODNB.

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP2369.2259)]

For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon

Revision history

Transcribed by Ghosh, Susan [2018-08-15]

Please cite as “WCP2369,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 29 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP2369