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WCU - Horace Kephart

Leonard Kephart to Barbara Bird, February 2, 1949, page 1

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Leonard Kephart to Barbara Bird, February 2, 1949, page 1

HL_MSS12-05_02_15_12_01
Item 2 - Leonard Kephart to Barbara Bird, February 2, 1949, page 2
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Leonard Kephart to Barbara Bird, February 2, 1949, page 2

HL_MSS12-05_02_15_12_02
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Item’s are ‘child’ level descriptions to ‘parent’ objects, (e.g. one page of a whole book).

  • February 21, 1949 Dear Barbara, George has just been here and wehave [sic] come to these, not so profound conclusions about the Books. The first thing, which I will do Wednesday, is for one of us to phone the Copyright Office and try to get someone who can tell us whether Mama or Macmillan owns these copyrights. It seems likely that if a copyright is assigned or sold the fact would be registered with the Copyright Office. But perhaps not. Anyway we will find out. Next, it seems to us, would be for you, or Mama, write to Macmillan, tell them that her copies of the contracts etc. were lost in the fire (you need not tell them when) and ask them for photostat copies. They could hardly refuse and certainly could not fake copies for they could not fake signatures. Anyway a firm as big as that could not afford to do a thing like that. Having the contract you could probably tell from the context, if it does not actually specify, the ownership of the copyrights. Likewise the time which they have to run. As nearly as we can tell these copyrights were all renewed rather recently and have 18 to 20 years to run. So its worth having a contract. George and I have not the slightest idea how many copies of any of these have been sold lately or how much would be involved if Mama had a scrap with Macmillan. So far as changing the contract is concerned it seems to depend on whether Macmillan is just running a bluff. Its true that their manufac- turing costs have increased heavily. Whether its likewise true that they are “unable” to reprint the book unless they can reduce the author’s percentage is another matter. If its not a bluff they will simply refuse to reprint the book at present royalty. That would be unfortunate both for Mama and because I, and all of us, would hate to see the book completely out of print. Yet that’s what they would do if aren’t bluffing So, it appears to us that you might call their bluff to the extent, after you have had a chance to read the contract, of suggesting a new contract at 15% of the cash received. They offer 10%. The worst weakness of all this deal is that the author has no way, so far as I know, of checking on the number of copies sold. Mama, I knowm [sic] has always thought they were Cheating on that. I just dont know and there’s no way, evidently, to find out. However, this seems to be true - that if they are selling a fairly good number they will want to continue and rather than get nothing they will settle for 15%. On the other hand if the number sold is small, which I suspect is the case, they would not feel that it was worth fooling with for less than a cut of 90% for themselves. I’m afraid they hold the best cards in this game. George says to hold out for more than 10%. I’m inclined not to though agreeing that an offer of 15% would be good strategy. If I were going to be in New York I’d not mind walking right in and talking to Mr. De Wilton. I could tell more about it. But I’ve no business in New York for some months yet. Anyway, we’ll let you know what we find out from the Copyright Office. We had a phone call from Jane Thursday to tell us that Barbara is in a
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Horace Kephart

Background and Early Career Horace Kephart was born in 1862 in Pennsylvania, but spent much of his youth in Iowa. He went on to achieve success in two careers. Trained as a...

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