System Number: 10809
Date: [4 November 1898][1]
Author: JW
Place: [Paris]
Recipient: William Heinemann[2]
Place: [London]
Repository: Library of Congress
Call Number: Manuscript Division, Pennell-Whistler Collection, PWC 10/897-98/1
Document Type: TLc
I have dropped into a little café by the Post Office, that I may still get you off a line to-night -
Did you understand by my telegram that your own wire came entirely too late last night - However I have written a very complete little letter to her Ladyship[3] of Portland Place, which I have begged her to "hand on" to Sir George[4] of the Place of Ely! -
So you must run in for a minute again to-morrow and see what they say now -
The case has become to me clearer and clearer - Still, we cannot give three months' time, to say nothing of £2000! -
I have met I think with no man who thinks the Baronet[5] would venture to come into Court - unless it be little Brown[6] of the Fine Art Society - He also I fancy only judges by Eden's general dogged offensiveness -
You cannot appear to enquire - but I think George might manage to know somehow or other something of the enemy's movements. How is it I want to know that he has taken no step to stop the work already? Surely his lawyers would have advised that step, before any other, as an effectual method - and certainly preferable to going into Court! - Doesn't George think so? -
The Book itself is now perfect - for I have received the last proofs from Hanson[7] - I mean the two or three slight alterations in Butterflies, etc., I spoke to you about - so that they might get their man to look it all over carefully, that there may not remain the faintest flaw or blemish, and then have the [p. 2] plates made ready for printing! -
There is a damnable notice of the "fore matter," as the miserable Russell[8] calls it, in last week's "Sketch" - Do get it, that you may see what harm that beast has brought about with his vile methods - you ought to send him the cutting - Perhaps I shall -
There have been several notices of the kind - I have put them aside and will send them, - Though, by the way, are you not coming over? - and when? -
The Channel has been impossible for everybody since I crossed it twice!! and so I suppose all your letters to me are still in the bags in London!!
To-morrow may perhaps bring me the clean copy of the book - and the account of the McClure[9] interview! -
Do write all to-morrow that I may read about the Lewis dinner on Sunday morning -
Always
[butterfly signature]
'4/11/98'
What did Mr. Good[10] answer about my Ivanhoes and Associated? I told Mrs. Anderson[11] to ask at the Bank on Tuesday and they had not received them.
This document is protected by copyright.
Notes:
1. [4 November 1898]
According to the Pennells' note in this typescript, the date was inserted by Heinemann (see note below).
2. William Heinemann
William Heinemann (1863-1920), publisher [more].
3. her Ladyship
Elisabeth Lewis (1844-1931), née Eberstadt, wife of G. H. Lewis [more]; JW's letter is #10985; the telegrams have not been located.
4. Sir George
Sir George Henry Lewis (1833-1911), society lawyer [more].
5. Baronet
Sir William Eden (1849-1915), painter and collector [more]. In 1894, JW quarrelled with Eden over the completion of Brown and Gold: Portrait of Lady Eden (YMSM 408), a portrait of Eden's wife. Eden instituted legal proceedings against him in 1894. In December 1897 JW, on appeal, was permitted by the Cour de Cassation in Paris to keep the picture but the case rumbled on for sometime afterwards. See Whistler, James McNeill, Eden versus Whistler: The Baronet and the Butterfly. A Valentine with a Verdict, Paris and New York, 1899 [GM, A.24] for JW's account of the affair.
6. Brown
Ernest George Brown (1853 or 1854-1915), assistant manager at the Fine Art Society [more].
7. Hanson
Hanson, possibly a printer. JW had just received the proofs for Baronet and the Butterfly. It was published in May 1899.
8. Russell
Robert Howard Russell, writer, journalist and publisher [more]. See JW's letter to Russell, 20 October 1898, #07512.
9. McClure
Possibly Samuel Sidney McClure (1857-1949), journalist and publisher [more].
10. Mr. Good
Unidentified. The 'Ivanhoes and Associated' was a western Australian gold mine. The London and Globe Corporation had just acquired control of the mine. The firm instigated a major share flotation (460,000 shares at £2). See Truth, vol. 42, 8 July 1897, p. 100; and JW to W. Heinemann, #08482, #10810.
11. Mrs. Anderson
Mrs Christine Anderson, manager of the 'Company of the Butterfly' [more].