It is a matter of no great importance to me, but the republication of
the foolish books that you mention would not be agreeable to me. They
have no kind of merit or interest. One of them, "The Fiend's Delight,"
was published against my protest; the utmost concession that the
compiler and publisher (the late John Camden Hatten, London) would
make was to let me edit his collection of my stuff and write a
preface. You would pretty surely lose money on any of them.
If you care to republish anything of mine you would, I think, do
better with "Black Beetles in Amber," or "Shapes of Clay." The former
sold well, and the latter would, I think, have done equally well if
the earthquake-and-fire had not destroyed it, including the plates.
Nearly all of both books were sold in San Francisco, and the sold, as
well as the unsold, copies--I mean the unsold copies of the
latter--perished in the fire. There is much inquiry for them (mainly
from those who lost them) and I am told that they bring fancy prices.
You probably know about that better than I.
I should be glad to entertain proposals from you for their
republication--in San Francisco--and should not be exacting as to
royalties, and so forth.
But the other books are "youthful indiscretions" and are "better
dead."
Sincerely yours,
AMBROSE BIERCE.
[The Army and Navy Club, Washington, D. C.,
December 28,1907.]