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British Psycho-Analytical Society
27 January 1927
London
Dear Professor,
I hasten to answer your question about the translation arrangements, though I cannot help regretting that you did not ask it before the fatal deed was done. I would ask you to cast your mind back to the rather similar
situation in regard to the “Vorlesungen” and to the agitated cabling through which some of the situation was then salvaged. Today, however, it can no longer be remedied in any such way.
The facts, as I explained them then, are indeed quite simple. A translation in England gives no rights in America, though one in America can and usually is registered in England also. No publisher in England, therefore, would consider issuing a translation unless he was assured that one was not to appear in America. The only exceptions are if (a) the sale would be likely to be large in England and (b) there was some arrangement to prevent the American one entering into England. Both these conditions could be fulfilled in the case of the “Vorlesungen”, but not in the case of any other book. Your private influence with your nephew was enough to gain his consent to any exporting into England being stopped,1 whereas we know nothing of the publishers who are acting for Clark. The “Vorlesungen” made a very popular book, and the time was at the height of the temporary boom in psycho-analysis. The “Hemmung” book2 has, of course, no popular appeal, and in any case the boom is long since past. The net result of all this is that no publisher in England would consider issuing a translation of the “Hemmung, etc.” unless he were very heavily subsidised (perhaps several hundred pounds). Even the Abraham book,3 which should have a considerable sale in both England and America cannot be published until we personally add another fifty pounds to the hundred pounds already donated from your Fond.
The other considerations you4 also know well—to translate a book of yours satisfactorily needs a correct knowledge of Englis