181 206
279
●
MASTERS, EDGAR LEE. Group of 6 items Signed,“E.L. Masters” or “Edgar Lee
Masters,” mostly relating to his books
Mirage
and
Nuptial Flight
, including four Typed
Letters to Boni & Liveright, a Typed Document being a contract for
Mirage
, and a Check
Endorsed. Each 1 page, 4to or 3
1
/
2
x8 inches; condition generally good.
Vp, 1923-34
[400/600]
The check, an advance of $2,500 from Boni & Liveright for
Nuptial Flight
and
Skeeters
Kirby
.
21 January 1924:“When Mr Smith was here . . . I asked him . . . to send me a contract fo[r]
MIRAGE, saying that it might be worded the same as the contract for THE NUPTIAL
FLIGHT. . . .Will you please have the contract drawing in duplicate . . . .”
The contract: 30 January 1924, providing a 15% royalty for first 5,000 copies, 20% for each
additional copy sold. Countersigned by Horace Liveright.
280
●
PORTER, WILLIAM SYDNEY (“O. HENRY”). Autograph Letter Signed,
“S.P.,” to Harry Peyton Steger (“My Dear Col.”), in pencil, sending a list of titles for an
unknown work, reporting that his own health is improving, and conveying that “Colonel
Bingham” requests a visit. 2 pages, folio, written on the recto and verso of a single sheet;
brittling and toning overall, chipping at all edges, short closed separations at folds with
complete separation at middle horizontal fold (without loss).
SOLD AS IS
.
“Land o’ the Sky” [NC],“Monday” 1909
[400/600]
“
. . . I like ‘Man About Town” for a title.
“
But I am sending in a few others for you to look at; and if any other suits you better, I’m
agreeable. Here they are, in preferred order:
“
TheVenturers.
“
Transfers.
“
Merry-Go-Rounds.
“
Babylonica.
“
Brickdust from Babel.
“
Babes in the Jungle.
“
If none of these hit you right, let me know and I’ll get busy again. But I think ‘Man About
Town’ is about the right thing. It gives the city idea without using the old hackneyed words. . . .”
Published in
The Bookman
magazine, vol. XXXII, where it is explained that Porter and
Steger “invariably addressed each other as ‘Colonel’.”
A Porter story with the title ‘Man About Town’ was published three years prior to the present
letter in
The Four Million
.
281
●
PORTER, WILLIAM SYDNEY (“O. HENRY”). Group of 4 Autograph
Manuscripts, unsigned, in pencil, each an unrelated fragment from a short story, comic dia-
logue, or other work, including a page from his story, “Law and Order.”Together 4 pages,
4to, written on rectos only; marked toning and brittling overall, complete separation at
horizontal folds, some chipping at edges.
SOLD AS IS
.
Np, nd
[500/750]
The “Law and Order” fragment, marked page 34: “. . . ‘One day there passes through Bildad
a bunch of these money investors from the East, and they stopped off there, Bildad being the
dinner station on the I. & G.N.They was just coming back from Mexico looking after mines
and such. . . .’”