System Number: 08512
Date: 30 December 1898
Author: JW
Place: Paris
Recipient: William Heinemann[1]
Place: [Paris]
Repository: Library of Congress
Call Number: Manuscript Division, Pennell-Whistler Collection, PWC
Document Type: ALS
[Chatham coat of arms with motto:] BENIGNO NUMINE
HOTEL CHATHAM
PARIS
Paris,
Dec. 30 1898.
Of course my letter[2] to the Wiener Strasse will have missed you! - It was all about a fortune[3] that we are to make - and right off - only twenty shares left - We must buy them up - and you will have to stand in for me - for [p. 2] the moment - for of course I shall have plenty of gold again directly - What I mean is I think the occasion ought not to be missed - and I daresay I may have drawn pretty well on the Bank - Dont know how I stand at present
The two of us I calculate would come to a matter of £480 - and it is reckoned that each share will, when everything is completed (about six months or more) be worth £500! -
Buy at £24 - and sell at £500!! -
What do you think of me as a growing Financier?? - Now will you just come over and dine to-morrow? 8 o'clock - Will explain further! - Also remember Tuesday[4] I am engaged - dining dans le monde Russe[5]! - Sunday and Monday dinners open for you - Déjeuners impossible because of work - Must arrange dinner, with you and May[6] and Uzanne[7] - So manage that - And a Happy New Year! -
[butterfly signature][8]
This document is protected by copyright.
Notes:
1. William Heinemann
William Heinemann (1863-1920), publisher [more].
2. letter
JW had just written to Heinemann with a share proposition (JW to W. Heinemann, #08511).
3. fortune
Double underlined.
4. Tuesday
Double underlined, as are the words 'impossible', 'Must' and 'dinner' in this paragraph. The line 'Tuesday ... dinner' is written in the left and right margins of p. 2, at right angles to the main text.
5. dans le monde Russe
Fr., in the Russian world.
6. May
Louis-Henry May, printer [more], publisher of JW's latest book, Whistler, James McNeill, Eden versus Whistler: The Baronet and the Butterfly. A Valentine with a Verdict, Paris and New York, 1899 [GM, A.24].
7. Uzanne
Louis Octave Uzanne (1852-1931), writer [more].
8. [butterfly signature]
The lines 'with you ... manage that - And' are written at right-angles in the right-hand margin of p. 1, and JW's greeting 'a Happy New Year' and butterfly signature are written in the left-hand margin of p. 1, both at right angles to the main text.