You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
15 February 1927
Vienna, IX. Berggasse 19
Dear Jones,
I am pleased to learn from your gracious letter that, together with your health, your good mood has also returned. Thank you for giving further explanations about the matter in question.
It will not have escaped you that the whole topic of English and American
translations is, so to speak, on the periphery of my interest and that I was always prepared to let others make the decisions. I now notice that on behalf of Hogarth Press you waive your rights to the translation of Laienanalyse. I am therefore also resuming negotiations over this little piece with America. After a discussion with Storfer I must draw your attention to a rather specific circumstance regarding the Selbstdarstellung. As you know, the Selbstdarstellung does not belong to the Verlag, but to the Leipzig firm Felix Meiner. It was only with difficulty and financial sacrifice that we obtained their permission to reprint it in the Gesammelte Schriften. Storfer now informs me further that Meiner has decidedly refused to leave the English rights to him. He could only obtain the translation rights restricted to America. Storfer sees the reason for this in the fact that Meiner is counting on an offer for the translation of the whole series in England, but not in America. For the time being there is therefore absolutely no chance of Hogarth Press publishing a translation of Selbstdarstellung, and our Verlag can give England neither a refusal nor permission for anything. Given this situation I regarded it as expedient not to break off negotiations with America for translating the Selbstdarstellung. But I suggested to the publisher there (Brentano) I could possibly make it a condition that B. acquire an English translation to be provided by us. This, of course, would be one by Strachey, which would have to be finished quickly. I am now asking you for an answer, possibly by telegram, as to whether Strachey is prepared to sell his translation to America. I w