Straight on Till Morning Read Online Free PDF Page A

months before publication. So you see, there is no time to be lost.
    Sincerely Yours
Paul Brooks 9
    12340 Emelita Street
North Hollywood,
California
23rd September 1941
    Paul Brooks,
Houghton Mifflin,
2 Park Street
Boston
    Dear Mr Brooks:
    Very many thanks for your letter, which cleared up a lot of things in my mind. I hope I can maintain your present enthusiasm for the manuscript in the succeeding chapters.
    My moving here from Nassau took up a certain amount of time, but in spite of this, I have managed to complete about fifteen thousand words since arriving in California. Ann Watkins has had a good part of this for some time and will receive the remainder shortly. I am, of course, sending her a first and second copy – one for your office and the other for her own use. Margot Johnson suggested that I send the material in large batches, rather than a chapter or so at a time. I would be willing, however, to send it along as I turn it out, should you prefer it. Naturally, I would like to have your opinion of it, as it progresses.
    I was interested in your information concerning publication dates in general. I knew very little about any of these things when I was writing to Lee, and I realize more than ever that there’s no time to lose.
    As to when it will be completed, I hope to have it on your hands by November 1st – at least not later than the fifteenth. That was the approximate date I gave to my agent when I signed the contract.
    By the way, I asked Lee if my book had any chance of being considered for one of your fellowship prizes, but so far have had no reply, or is this type of thing not eligible.
    My Best Wishes
Beryl 10
    Brooks replied that he would prefer the manuscript in ‘large chunks…or complete, rather than chapter by chapter’ and telling her that it was too late to consider the book for a Literary Fellowship. ‘Fellowship projects have to be considered as such from the very beginning. In any case, I doubt whether this is just the sort of book to come under that plan.’
    By October Beryl had found a more permanent residence in North Hollywood. 11 This was a single-storey house, not large but roomy enough for Beryl and her friend Dorothy Rogers, with whom she shared. The costs of travel and house moving may have been responsible for a request to her publishers for a further advance. An unsigned memo dated 17 October in the Houghton Mifflin files has an interesting addendum. The original typewritten script reads: ‘Mr Linscott would like the Beryl Markham blank back before next Tuesday.’ Scrawled on this memo are two short handwritten notes. The first: ‘Drawing prepared. Author wants money’, is capped by a terse query written in another hand. ‘Or what?’
    MEMORANDUM
    To Mr Greenslet From RNL Date Oct 20 41
    Last June we signed up a non fiction project entitled WINGS OVER THE JUNGLE written by Beryl Markham and sent us through Ann Watkins, with a contract calling for $250 on signing and $250 more on receipt of a satisfactory manuscript. The author has now written us, through Lee Barker (who strongly seconds her request) asking if she can have $100 more at the present time in view of the fact that she has now sent us 199 pages of manuscript and expects to send us the rest next month for publication early in 1942.
    Beryl Markham is a famous aviatrix who was brought up on an African ranch, become a professional horse trainer, learned to fly, and for years operated a sort of air taxi service for African hunters during which time she had innumerable adventures. This book is the story of her life, written with really extraordinary vividness and dramatic quality. We gave her a contract on the basis of the first chapter and the material received since more than lives up to our expectation.
    Beryl Markham is now in this country, has put aside all other work to finish the book promptly, and has apparently, run out of funds and needs this small amount to tide her