GE to John Chapman, London, [2 December 1853]
Title
GE to John Chapman, London, [2 December 1853]
Title
GE to John Chapman, London, [2 December 1853]
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
John Chapman
Date(s)
- 1853-12-02
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to John Chapman, London, [2 December 1853]
MS: Huntington Library. Endorsed: Miss Evans Dec. 1853. Published: George Eliot and John Chapman, pp. 73-74.
Cambridge Street | Friday Morning.
Dear Friend,
Have the goodness to confine the perusal of this letter to yourself, and not to leave it about for the amusement of your amateurs of lettres in'e9dites.
There is one subject which I omitted to mention to you yesterday, but which will perhaps be better committed to paper, as it will then be understood to be a matter of business. Friendship is not to be depended on, but business has rather more guarantees.
You seem to be oblivious just now of the fact that you have pledged yourself as well as me to the publication of another work besides Feuerbach in your Series. 415 For the completion of the historical part of that work, books are indispensable to me. If I could do as I pleased I would much rather become myself a subscriber to the London Library and save both myself and you the trouble of speaking to you on the subject. But as this said work will occupy nearly the whole of next year and as I am to have no money for it -- since the "half profits" are not likely to have any other than a conceptional existence, a "gedachtsein" -- I don't see how I can possibly go to any expense in the matter.
I bitterly regret that I allowed myself to be associated with your Series, but since I have done so, I am very anxious to fulfil my engagements both to you and the public. It is in this sense that I wish you to publish Feuerbach, and I beg you to understand that I would much rather that you should publish the work and not pay me than pay me and not publish it. I don't think you are sufficiently alive to the ignominy of advertising things, especially as part of a subscription series, which never appear. The two requests then which I have to make are first, that you will let me know whether you can, as a matter of business, undertake to supply me with the necessary books, and secondly, that you will consider the question of Feuerbach as one which concerns our honour first and our pockets after.
I have been making a desk of my knee so I fear some of my words may be illegible, which will be a pity because of course you can't substitute any half as good.
Yours faithfully,
Marian Evans.
MS: Huntington Library. Endorsed: Miss Evans Dec. 1853. Published: George Eliot and John Chapman, pp. 73-74.
Cambridge Street | Friday Morning.
Dear Friend,
Have the goodness to confine the perusal of this letter to yourself, and not to leave it about for the amusement of your amateurs of lettres in'e9dites.
There is one subject which I omitted to mention to you yesterday, but which will perhaps be better committed to paper, as it will then be understood to be a matter of business. Friendship is not to be depended on, but business has rather more guarantees.
You seem to be oblivious just now of the fact that you have pledged yourself as well as me to the publication of another work besides Feuerbach in your Series. 415 For the completion of the historical part of that work, books are indispensable to me. If I could do as I pleased I would much rather become myself a subscriber to the London Library and save both myself and you the trouble of speaking to you on the subject. But as this said work will occupy nearly the whole of next year and as I am to have no money for it -- since the "half profits" are not likely to have any other than a conceptional existence, a "gedachtsein" -- I don't see how I can possibly go to any expense in the matter.
I bitterly regret that I allowed myself to be associated with your Series, but since I have done so, I am very anxious to fulfil my engagements both to you and the public. It is in this sense that I wish you to publish Feuerbach, and I beg you to understand that I would much rather that you should publish the work and not pay me than pay me and not publish it. I don't think you are sufficiently alive to the ignominy of advertising things, especially as part of a subscription series, which never appear. The two requests then which I have to make are first, that you will let me know whether you can, as a matter of business, undertake to supply me with the necessary books, and secondly, that you will consider the question of Feuerbach as one which concerns our honour first and our pockets after.
I have been making a desk of my knee so I fear some of my words may be illegible, which will be a pity because of course you can't substitute any half as good.
Yours faithfully,
Marian Evans.
Signature
Marian Evans.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to John Chapman, London, [2 December 1853], Complete George Eliot Letters(2026), George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett. https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org, Accessed September 7, 2026. https://georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/92792