30 INTRODUCTION
into his pocket and pay for his own work. After writing to you, I sent a note to Phillips & Sampson, who returned for answer that they published no original works in verse, but only reprints of foreign ones, and added that they were full of business for many months to come. I next sent a note to Ticknor, who answered that he was too busy to enter into new contracts before next Spring. So, resolved not to delay, and unwilling to abandon my copyright, I proposed to Mr. Jewett that he should be my agent and sell my work on commission, having determined that I would be at the sole expense of my own undertaking. To this he cheerfully assented (he had previously offered to be at all expenses except for stereotyping, and allow me fifteen per cent). After a few days, thinking that, if I allowed him the use of my plates for five years, he might still ad- here to his first offer, I went to him again ; but he said that it was his custom to claim the use of the plates until the expiration of the copyright. But, upon my saying that I might wish to collect into a body my present and future works, he said that a provision could be made to that effect, but that he should much prefer to be my agent than to advance money on the book and have the trouble of contracting for its publication. This he thought I could get done for about ;^325.oo ; although, if I was much bent upon it and could not make my own arrangements advan- tageously, he would not withdraw his offer, but, as the last proposition had come from myself, he should prefer to have me abide by my own proposal. I then told him that people were apt not to do those things so efficiently which they undertook for others on commission as when they themselves had a pecuniary interest involved, and asked him whether my affairs would really fare so well in his hands under the new arrangement as under the old.
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