There is my usual puzzle about publishers. Chatto ought to
have it, as he has all the other essays; these all belong to
me, and Chatto publishes on terms. Longman has forgotten the
terms we are on; let him look up our first correspondence,
and he will see I reserved explicitly, as was my habit, the
right to republish as I choose. Had the same arrangement
with Henley, Magazine of Art, and with Tulloch Fraser's. -
For any necessary note or preface, it would be a real service
if you would undertake the duty yourself. I should love a
preface by you, as short or as long as you choose, three
sentences, thirty pages, the thing I should like is your
name. And the excuse of my great distance seems sufficient.
I shall return with this the sheets corrected as far as I
have them; the rest I will leave, if you will, to you
entirely; let it be your book, and disclaim what you dislike
in the preface. You can say it was at my eager prayer. I
should say I am the less willing to pass Chatto over, because
he behaved the other day in a very handsome manner. He asked
leave to reprint DAMIEN; I gave it to him as a present,
explaining I could receive no emolument for a personal
attack. And he took out my share of profits, and sent them
in my name to the Leper Fund. I could not bear after that to
take from him any of that class of books which I have always
given him. Tell him the same terms will do. Clark to print,
uniform with the others.

I have lost all the days since this letter began re-handling
Chapter IV. of the Samoa racket. I do not go in for
literature; address myself to sensible people rather than to
sensitive. And, indeed, it is a kind of journalism, I have