in Münster

Highly esteemed friend,

Your kind lines of the 22nd ult. unfortunately came to hand only on the 26th, which was most disagreeable to me, since the evening before I had been prompted by a local bookseller, of whom I was making enquiries as to accommodating publishers, to write to Hammerich in Altona offering him the publication of the Shelley. I accordingly received an answer from him only today, and it proved a refusal, he claiming to be overburdened with publishing undertakings.

As regards G. C. A. Meyer Sen., I am of the opinion that we should drop him on all accounts. Firstly, the fellow and his factory hands (Brinckmeier, Bärmann & Co.) are too mean; secondly, PPüttmann would never see his way to writing for his publishing house; thirdly, M[eyer] pays horrorably; and fourthly, we should require a host of reminders and other vexations to collect the honorarium. I am currently engaged in dunning him myself on account of the honorarium for my articles in the *Mitt[ernacht]zeitung*, which he will not pay up; and although Brinckmeier here acts as the middleman between us, I had nonetheless better on no account make the offer. I am unfortunately still without an answer from PPüttmann and therefore cannot take any energetic measures. Besides, M[eyer] will already have parcelled everything out among his underlings and can no longer cede anything of Sh[elley] to us. These publishers are wont to dispose unconditionally of their menial pens, and which of us would put up with that?

I consider it best to give PPüttmann, who in this respect may well be the most experienced among us, unrestricted authority to negotiate the contract; he will no doubt settle the matter to the satisfaction of us all and with greater ease than I, at least. Moreover, he has already offered the ‘Queen Mab’ to W. Engelmann, and he would be the right publisher for us. And there is one thing here of great importance: you, like

myself, have hitherto written solely for journals; PPüttmann, on the other hand, has already had one work printed and announced a second.¹ It is upon such things that these infamous publishers set store.

When your letter arrived, Schünemann had just set out on a journey from which he has not yet returned. I shall certainly foist Coleridge on him; at the Gutenberg festival, which was celebrated here with great pomp, I drank brotherhood with him amid a champagne haze, by which he felt greatly honoured. As soon as you have the manuscript ready, just send it to me.

‘The malicious disparagement of the *Hall[ischen] Jahrb[ücher]* appears in No. 97 or 98 of the *Tel[egraph]*, which arrives here by post and therefore much earlier than can be the case with you. I have again sent something to Gutzkow] and am curious to see how he will receive it after the article in the *Mitt[ernacht]zeitung* (‘Moderne Polemik’!).

I have just received a letter from Barmen which, incomprehensibly, contains nothing from PPüttmann. If you agree that P[Püttmann] should attend to the contract business, I shall write to him immediately upon receipt of your answer and transfer everything to him. Would you also kindly tell me how matters stand regarding the honorarium of the *Rhein[ischen] Jahrbuchs*; I am sending something to Freiligrath one of these days. It is not exactly the lucre I am concerned about, but I do like to know in advance what I have to go by.

I have read your translation from Shelley and Coleridge in Pfizer’s journals² with pleasure; today I shall finish with Shelley’s ‘Sensitive Plant’ and send it to him as well. That glorious poem is written in a spirit which is even more closely akin to the Droste productions than to Byron. The latter afford me constant enjoyment and I again thank you for them.

With assurances of sincere esteem I commend myself to your kindly remembrance,
most devotedly
Fr. Engels
Bremen, 2/7/40