LETTERS: Correspondence with her US publishers.
Iris Murdoch
Letters to Her American Publishers
1961-1985
Murdoch, Iris. Twelve Autograph Letters Signed, to Viking publishers Marshall Best, Alan Williams and Pat Mulcahy; 1961-1985.
Together with:
1 p. autograph poem by Murdoch; n.d.; docketed on the bottom of the page: “for page 216 of Unicorn typescript!” Murdoch’s The Unicorn was published in 1963.
19 photographs of Murdoch, stamped on the versos with various photographers stamps.
10pp. typescript by Murdoch, titled, “Salvation by Words”; no emendations.
2 pp. of printed material, titled “Literati Unlimited” (which includes excerpted quoted from Murdoch interviews).
1 ALS “Gwenda David,” to Helen Taylor at Viking; June 29, 1955; re: Murdoch.
2 TLS “Margaret Ramsay,” to Marshall Best; July 3 and July 26, 1963; re: Murdoch’s The Sandcastle.
Murdoch’s letters mostly concern revisions to typescripts she had sent to Viking, including an instance of clarifying what she thought might be a purely British phrase for American audiences: “‘Department’ on galley 3, would mean civil service dept. to an English ear – if misleading or unclear chez vous do alter. I have quite a lot of proof reader’s mission objections – I think the underclothes but at the end of the Randall-seduction chapter should be OK now, but if you want any more alterations do ask.” (February 4, 1962; this is likely in reference to Murdoch’s An Unlikely Rose, published that same year).
In a four-page letter to Alan Williams, Murdoch talks about the business side of an author’s life. She mentions her incredulity at the low amount of money she’s been paid for American book sales, especially since she has realized the amount of influence she’s had over the years:
I am not fussing about money in the sense of needing or asking for it in any special way. I don’t need it at present, and, thank you, I don’t want any guaranteed income, I just want to earn as I sell in the usual manner. I do want the books to have a fair run and gain me what they can while I am still able to write them. I should have thought paperbacks would earn more; America is a big place where I am studied a lot. Incidentally, in my travels in USA last year, St. Louis, OKla, Denver, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, I was constantly in bookshops and did not see any IM at all, except for one hardback in Denver – which PB works by English authors from William Golding to Melvyn Bragg were copiously on display. (April 11, 1979)
In 1987, she was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire. She died in 1999 from Alzheimer’s disease.
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