To Messrs Williams & Norgate, 19 December 1877

90. Gloucester Place

Portman Square

W.

19^th Dec 1877

Dear sirs

Will you kindly

send to me — in the

enclosed envelope — the

necessary form, authorising

you to receive for me

through the Customs House

six copies of the

Tauchnitz Edition in

one volume of a

new work of mine immediately

to be published at Leipzig.

I will return the

form to you, signed —

taking a copy previously,

so that I need not

trouble you on the

next occasion.

Faithfully yours

Wilkie Collins

Messrs Williams & Norgate

NOTES
Williams & Norgate were foreign booksellers in Covent Garden. Tauchnitz books were published in English in continental Europe on the strict understanding that they were not re-imported to the UK. The procedure allowed authors to have a few copies for their own use. Although it is likely that such letters were written for all the 30 books by Collins (two of which were written with Dickens) that Tauchnitz published, only five are known. See the similar letter of 1859 accompanied by the relevant form.

The book was My Lady’s Money and Percy and the Prophet published by Tauchnitz on 3 January 1878. Copies are recorded from December 1877 (Todd & Bowden No.1706).

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