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Correspondence from The Mandrake Press to Fernando Pessoa
18th. September, 1930.
Senor Fernando Pessoa, Apartado 147, Lisbon, Portugal.
Dear Senor Pessoa,
I have been asked personally to reply to your letter addressed to the Mandrake Press and dated September 12th 1930. Your proposals are extremely interesting to us. Perhaps it would be best to deal with them one by one. Regarding No. 1. Translations from Old Portuguese Song-Books and Romances of Chivalry, would, I think have a good public here and also in America, providing the translations were done by someone sufficiently gifted to render them into good English. Would it be possible for you to do them yourself? Or have they already been done, and if so, do you think they have been done with a standard of literary merit of which you yourself would approve?
Modern Portuguese authors who offer novelty of thought and emotion may possibly find a large public, but of course this depends entirely on the nature of their thought. It would be impossible to judge without some specific author mentioned and an outline given as to the nature of his view of life. Could you possibly spare the time to give information of about one or two?
A book like 'THE BARON OF LAVOS' could only be issued here in a limited edition. I have not read it, nor have I read 'THE MANDARIN.' I should not like to venture an opinion of these without knowing more about them. Perhaps Mr. Crowley, if he is still with you, would be able to tell you whether either or both of these books would find a market in England.
I am sorry to say that your poems were submitted to the Mandrake Press before the present Board took control. Could you possible submit them again with the added poems?
I quite agree with you that no one is better qualified to write a preface than Mr. Crowley.
Parts 2 and 3 in your letter come under the question of general policy which are best answered by the following remarks.
At present it is our policy to have representatives only in Continental countries. We have for instance, in Germany a representative who is a shareholder to the extent of £1,000. He submits German books that he thinks are likely to appeal to the English market, and arranges for the translation of any books in English which we publish, and which he thinks will be suitable for the German market. Our representative in Germany is a personal friend of Mr. Crowley, a Herr Karl Germer, by name. He has already obtained for us the rights, among others, of two extremely valuable publications. One is a book by Dr. Alfred Adler. No doubt you know whom I mean. He is one of the trio made by Freud, Jung and himself. The rights of this book were obtained with the assistance of Mr. Crowley.
We have also obtained the rights for Great Britain and the British Empire for Ewers' ALRAUNE. This book sold as many as 360,000 in Germany, and if we sell only one-fifth of that number here, our profit will be about £7,000.
Herr Germer draws £100 a year and any expenses which the company sanctions. This of course is in addition to the profits accruing on his shares.
Would a similar arrangement be of any interest to you? We have at present 2,000 £1, 10% Cumulative Preference Shares available. They carry not only the 10% preference dividend but they also share the profits with the Ordinary Shares after the Ordinary Shares have received a dividend equal in amount to the Preference Shares. You could, if you wished take up all or part of these and become our representative in Portugal and Spain. We could possibly add Brazil to the territory. If the Portuguese booksellers made themselves responsible for accounts on books sent out to Brazil.
It seems doubtful whether at present it would be the wisest policy to open a branch in Lisbon for the purpose of having done apart from the printing of translations of English books. This is a question which would have to be gone into very thoroughly. The printing for the English market varies so much with the nature of the book, and it is very doubtful whether, speaking generally, printing in either Spain or Portugal would be quite suitable to this market. This, however, is an open question, and we shall be glad to go into it further with you.
I am enclosing you a catalog of our publications. It is not quite up to date, but directly we have the most recent one printed, I shall send you a copy with great pleasure.
Permit me to thank you personally for your kind letter, and I hope we shall become better acquainted in the early future.
Yours very truly,
MANDRAKE PRESS LTD.
Per
R. Thynne, [Major Robert Thynne] Chairman.
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