May 20, 1927.
My dear Miss Addams:
It seems to us that the time is ripe to stir up a little fresh enthusiasm for TWENTY YEARS AT HULL HOUSE. What we would like to do is to bring out a new edition of the book this Fall, adding to it if you care to a chapter, or new foreword, or reprinting the book exactly as it stands, if that is your preference. We think that by slightly reducing the price, by including it in our Fall List, and subscribing it again to the book trade, we can increase its sale somewhat.
In order to do this, we would like to ask your cooperation in the matter of royalty. Would you, for this new edition, in order to assist us in promoting it vigorously, agree to take a royalty of 10%? The older that a work grows and the wider its circulation has been, the more difficult and the more costly it is to keep it alive. We should like to be as free as possible to work TWENTY YEARS AT HULL HOUSE vigorously, and this little royalty arrangement would help.
If the suggestion appeals to you, as I hope it may, I should like to include in the arrangement a provision that next year, i.e. in 1928, we add the book to our Modern Reader's Series and pay you $250.00 for all rights in that series, the regular edition and royalties of course to continue. Do not confuse the Modern Reader's Series with the Modern Library, published by another Company. The inclusion of TWENTY YEARS AT HULL HOUSE in the Modern Reader's Series would not, at least that has been our experience in the past, interfere with the circulation of the regular edition of the book. In fact, we find sometimes that the Modern Reader's editions promote the sale of the more elaborate volumes. I am sending you a copy of one of the books in the Modern Reader's Series. It sells for $1.25. The sale is for the most part to small book-stores, stationery stores, and out-of-the-way concerns not handling regular book lines. We are trying to include in it only worth while publications. If you believe, as I do, that it would be beneficial to your work, or at least that it would not in any way interfere with its continued success in the regular form, I should be glad to include it in our Modern Reader's Series plans for next year or the year after [page 2].
In the hope that you may be favorably disposed to both of these proposals, I am sending you a contract for your signature. Of course if the suggestion is not acceptable in any particular, you need not sign the agreement.
Looking forward to hearing from you, and with my regards,
Very sincerely yours,
H S. Latham [signed]
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