The Man with the Golden Typewriter Read Online Free Page A

I am now at work on it with a pruning and tuning fork and we will see what it looks like in a week or two. At the present moment it is indeed a dog’s breakfast and I am ashamed that William passed on to you such a very rough and slovenly version.
    Already the corpses of split infinitives and a host of other grammatical solecisms are lying bloody on the floor.
    We will see.
    Again with many thanks for your note.
    On the same day he wrote to Ann, using his golden typewriter.
    My love
    This is only a tiny letter to try out my new typewriter and to see if it will write golden words since it is made of gold.
    As you see, it will write at any rate in two colours which is a start, but it has a thing called a MAGIC MARGIN which I have not yet mastered so the margin is a bit crooked. My touch just isn’t light enough I fear.
    You have been wonderfully brave and I am very proud of you. The doctors and nurses all say so and are astonished you were so good about all the dreadful things they did to you. They have been simply shuffling you and dealing you out and then shuffling again. I do hope darling Kaspar [sic] has made it up to you a little. He is the most heavenly child and I know he will grow up to be something wonderful because you have paid for him with so much pain.
    Goodnight my brave sweetheart.
    TO JONATHAN CAPE
    Following a meeting with Jonathan Cape, Fleming outlined the contract as far as he understood it. Wren Howard, who had little time for such impertinence from an author whom he privately considered a ‘bounder’, added his comments [in square brackets] for Cape’s attention.
    18th September, 1952
    Dear Jonathan,
    It was very nice of you to be so patient with me yesterday and here is a note of the points I think we covered.
    1) Royalties
    10 per cent on 1 to 10,000;
    15 per cent on 10,000 to 15,000;
    17½ per cent on 15,000 to 20,000;
    20 per cent thereafter.
    If you are feeling in a more generous mood today, for symmetry’s sake you might care to include 12½ per cent on the 5,000 to 10,000, but I will not be exigent.
[NO]
    2) Print
    A first print of 10,000 copies.
    I hope this figure will not give you sleepless nights. You may be interested to know that Nicolas Bentley’s first thriller, “The Tongue-TiedCanary,” published by Michael Joseph in 1949 – a very moderate and conventional work – sold 13,000 and is still selling.
[It is pointless & most surely unnecessary imposition upon publisher in recent circs & in a falling paper market & with quick facilities for reprint. Especially in view of point 11, I should decline.]
    3. American Publication
    I suggest that our efforts in this direction should be mutual, but whether I am successful or you are, the publisher will receive 10 per cent of all monies resulting.
[OK]
    4. Serial Rights and Film and Theatre Rights
    The same applies as with the American rights.
[First serials, certainly, but we want joint control over 2 nd
sers.]
    5. Television, Broadcasting Rights, etc.
    The same applies.
[and after joint control]
    6. Advertisement and Promotion
    I hope you would agree to consulting with me on the text of anything you publish regarding the book.
[May be quite impracticable if he is e.g. in Bermuda]
    7. Design
    I will submit some designs for a jacket and for the binding of the book (conforming with your very high standards), to which I hope you would give sympathetic consideration.
[yes, but NO MORE]
    8. Blurbs
    I will submit text for the inside flap and biographical material and a photograph for the back of the wrapper.
[OK]
    9. Publication Date
    Shall we aim at 15th April? (The “Royale” in the title may help to pick up some extra sales over the coronation period).
[RATS]
    10) Copies For Personal Use
    For the fun of it and to make useful copy for gossip paragraphs, etc., I would like to suggest that I toss your secretary double or quits on the trade price for any additional personal copies I may require.