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- 20 Dec. 1927 (Creation)
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1 single sheet
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Clarendon Press, Oxford.—Discusses arrangements for reprinting, and comments on a few points in the text.
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Transcript
The Clarendon Press, Oxford
20th December, 1927.
Dear Mr. McKerrow,
When your letter to Chapman came in this morning, I was just about to write to say that we had kept the type of your book standing, and I think we are justified by its send-off. It appears to be going very well as specialist books go, and I am not sure that the second edition will be so distant as you appear to think. Anyhow the type is standing, and in about three months’ time we shall probably have to decide whether to take more copies off, or to make any corrections that occur to you, and then take moulds. I hope and expect we shall take the former alternative, and in any event we should need your corrections if you have found any misprints.
I read the book again with very great interest and no criticisms. The only suggestion I would have made at an earlier stage is that the section on abbreviations might usefully have contained a few more historical indications. For the purposes of book printing, which is your strict subject, they are unnecessary; but I should like to have seen the ancient and typical contractions e.g. dñs. for dominus, distinguished by some mark (an asterisk, for instance) from the relatively modern ones alongside which they fall in books. However, this is really outside your scope, and belongs to an historical study of contractions.
I was interested in your note on the proposal to make the ream 500 sheets. My own difficulty was less that of calculation than the obvious intention of the printers to charge the same price for machining a ream, i.e. to increase the machining price by a little over 3%. As soon as I mentioned the proportionate reduction of machining charges, the demand flagged.
When I can form any proper estimate in the New Year, I shall give you some idea of the sales to date, and consult you about the policy of taking off more copies from the type. The book will obviously be used in all the schools of research in English literature.
Yours sincerely,
Kenneth Sisam
R. B. McKerrow Esq.
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Typed, except the signature and the tittle in ‘dñs’. At the head are the reference ‘5889/K.S.’ and, elsewhere, the letter ‘C.’