Documents associated with: Balestier, Wolcott
Record 8 of 17
System Number: 08457
Date: [June 1890][1]
Author: JW
Place: London
Recipient: William Heinemann[2]
Place: [London]
Repository: Library of Congress
Call Number: Manuscript Division, Pennell-Whistler Collection, PWC 1/5
Document Type: ALS
'[ca. 1892]'[3]
21, CHEYNE WALK,
CHELSEA.
Dear Mr Heinemann -
I wonder if you are in a noble mood?! -
The irritated people have been coming down upon me unceasingly at the end of the season, and now, that I would like to get away, I am rather crippled! -
What do you think? -
Would you mind anticipating by a few days, the settling up between gracious publisher [p. 2] and timid author - and if there be a pretty balance, sending the shining cheque now? -
If this be your humour, do not be deterred by mere detail of date - and let not your left hand know[4] what is delt [sic] out by your generous right hand! . -
En tous cas
Always charming
[butterfly signature]
You see Balestier[5], the bad, has bolted with the dollar bags, and I have not as yet been offered "one cent" of his countrys currency!! or I should not dream of writing to you -
I thought they[6] were going to gild top edges of the Edition de Luxe??
This document is protected by copyright.
Notes:
1. [June 1890]
Dated by reference to publication (see below).
2. William Heinemann
William Heinemann (1863-1920), publisher [more]. He was about to publish Whistler, James McNeill, The Gentle Art of Making Enemies, London and New York, 1890.
3. '[ca. 1892]'
Added in another hand.
4. let not your left hand know
Allusion to Matthew 6.3 - 'But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth'.
5. Balestier
Charles Wolcott Balestier (1861-1891), novelist and literary agent [more]. JW's agreement with the American publisher John Wurtele Lovell (1852-1932), publisher [more], is dated 29 May 1890 (#02645).
6. I thought they
The remainder of the text appears on p. 1.