We would be glad to pay you a royaLty of 10 per cent. upon the
retail price of the book, and we enclose duplicate contracts
for your signature in case this proves satisfactory to you.
Believe us, etc., etc.,
DECAMERON, JONES & CO.
I have since thought that "Paradise Lost" would have been a
better title for that book. It was published in the autumn of
1907, and since that time our life has never been the same.
By some mischance the book became the success of the season;
it was widely commended as "a gospel of health and sanity" and
Andrew received, in almost every mail, offers from publishers
and magazine editors who wanted to get hold of his next book.
It is almost incredible to what stratagems publishers will
descend to influence an author. Andrew had written in
"Paradise Regained" of the tramps who visit us, how quaint and
appealing some of them are (let me add, how dirty), and how we
never turn away any one who seems worthy. Would you believe
that, in the spring after the book was published, a
disreputable-looking vagabond with a knapsack, who turned up
one day, blarneyed Andrew about his book and stayed overnight,
announced himself at breakfast as a leading New York publisher?
He had chosen this ruse in order to make Andrew's acquaintance.
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