Parkstone, Dorset.
May 30th. 1901
Messrs Macmillan & Co.1
Dear Sirs
Sheets of "Island Life"2 received.
I did not write about your proposal as to prices because it involves so much explanation & discussion (unless you have made a mistake) that I had rather not undertake it. But as you press for a reply I suppose I must give one.
What "net" means to the Trade I do not know, & it does not concern me. What it means to the retail ordinary buyer of books in London & all large towns, is, that they can not get them under [2] the published price, whereas now they can get them with 3d in the shilling discount.
Your proposal means, therefore, to raise the price of the three cheap editions, to the bulk of retail ordinary buyers, 66 per. cent. — (from 46 to 7/6.-) and at the same time to raise the price of Darwinism3 11 per. cent. — (from s6/9d to 7/6.)! And you call this "reducing Darwinism to the same level."
If this is really your [3] proposal, I can do nothing but decline it, as it seems to me not only quite unprecedented but prohibitory.
Yours very truly | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]
Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP3389.3357)]
For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon
Please cite as “WCP3389,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 28 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP3389