WCP3402

[1]

Broadstone, Wimborne

August 9th. 1907

Messrs. Macmillan & Co.¹

Dear Sirs

I find that my article on "Mars"²will be too long for a Review article, & I wish to have it published as a booklet @ ^s.1/— or ^s1/ 6^d. —under the title—

Is Mars Inhabited:

A Critical Review of Mr. Lowell's "Mars and its Canals", with a suggested Explanation.

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It will run I think to from 16 to 20 thousand words. It will [2] be, as I mentioned before, what I consider a destructive criticism of Lowell's theories while doing the fullest justice to his admirable work on the planet. The subject has attracted so much attention in almost every paper and magazine in the kingdom, that I think a careful and thorough yet popular exposition of the facts, and the results they lead to, will have a large sale at a low price. No competent [3] astronomer or physicist seems inclined to do this, & I have therefore undertaken it. I write therefore to know whether it would be against your rules or too unusual, for you to publish a criticism of one of your own books.

The recent art. in the Fortnightly is quite inadequate as a criticism.³

If you will undertake it I should like it to be of a [illeg.] size to match my other books, even if in a thin cover,— and I also hope you would then be able to allow me the [4] use of the Map of Mars that that appeared in "Nature" (Oct^r. 11. 1906 p. 587) and also, perhaps, the large chart at the end of Lowell's book— but that is not so important.

An answer at your earliest convenience will oblige, as I may want time to make other arrangements for the publication. I may add that on some of the ^{purely astronomical &} mathematical points I am taking the advice of Sir W. Huggins,⁴ Rev^d. Osmond Fisher,⁵ & other friends.

Yours very truly | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]