Your kind lines of the 22nd of last month reached me 
unfortunately only on the 26th, which was very disagreeable to me 
since the previous evening, asked by a local bookseller of whom I 
made inquiries about reasonable publishers, I had written to 
Hammerich in Altona and offered him the publication of the 
Shelley? So I received his reply only today, which was a rejection, 
since he says he is overwhelmed with publishing work. 

As concerns G. C. A. Meyer senior, I am of the opinion that we 
should let him go in any case. Firstly, the fellow and his factory 
workers (Brinckmeier, Barmann and Co.) are too common; sec- 
ondly, Ptittmann would never consent to write for his publishing 
house; thirdly, Meyer pays terribly low fees, and fourthly, we 
would get involved in a horrible mass of demand notes and other 
vexations to rake in the fees. I am at the moment myself having to 
send him demand notes for the fee for my articles in the 
Mitternachtzeitung,° which he does not want to fork out; and 
although in this case there is the middleman Brinckmeier between 
us, I could on no account make the offer. I am unfortunately still 
without a reply from Pittmann and hence cannot take any 
energetic steps. Moreover, Meyer will already have distributed 

To Levin Schiicking, July 2, 1840 497 

everything to his subordinates and will not be able to let us have 
anything from Shelley. These publishers are used to having the 
pens in their service absolutely at thei: disposal, and which of us 
would put up with that? 

I think the best is to give Pittmann, who in this respect is 
probably the most experienced among us, unrestricted authority to 
enter into a contract; he will no doubt carry the matter through 
to the satisfaction of us all and at all events with greater ease 
than I could. Moreover, he has already offered Queen Mab to 
W. Engelmann, who would be the right publisher for us. And one 
thing is of great importance here: you, like me, have so far written 
only for journals; Puttmann, on the other hand, has already had 
one work printed and another announced.”** The infamous 
publishers pay attention to this kind of thing. 

When your letter arrived, Schimemann had just started on a 
journey from which he is not yet back. I shall make him accept 
Coleridge, at any rate; in a champagne fog at the Gutenberg 
festival, which was celebrated here with splendour, I drank 
brotherhood with him, by which he felt much honoured. If you 
have the manuscript so far ready, please send it to me. 

The spiteful abuse of the Hallische Jahrbiicher is in No. 97 or 98 
of the Telegraph,? which reaches us by post and therefore much 
earlier than it can you. I have again sent Gutzkow something and 
am curious to see how he receives it after the article in the 
Mitternachtzeitung (“Moderne Polemik”).?% 

From Barmen I have just received a letter which incomprehensi- 
bly contains nothing about Puttmann. If you agree to Puttmann 
looking after the publishing side, I shall write to him immediately 
I hear from you and pass everything on to him. Also, please tell 
me how matters stand with the fee from the Rheinisches Jahrbuch; 
in a few days I shall send something to Freiligrath. In this case I 
don’t care so much about the money, but I would like to know in 
advance how JI stand. 

Your translation of Shelley and Coleridge in Pfizer’s Blatter? I 
have read with pleasure *°’; today I shall finish Shelley’s Sensitive 
Plant and shall send it also to him. This splendid poem is written 
in a spirit which is still more akin than Byron to Droste’s works. 
These continue to give me great pleasure and I thank you for 
them once more. 

With the assurance of my sincere respect 1 commend myself to 
your kind remembrance. 

Yours most truly, 

Fr. Engels 
Bremen, 2/7.40