INTERNATIONAL PSYCHO‑ANALYTICAL ASSOCIATION

«IP0,0»                               25 January 1924  London W1

Dear Professor,

«IP4,0»It was a great pleasure to have the good news confirmed by you personally that you are again hard at work.

I am glad you were satisfied with the Introduction to the «MDUL»Collected Papers«MDNM».  It is intended for the series.  All the proofs of the first volume have arrived, but I cannot guarantee that the volume itself will after the bad experiences we have had with the last numbers of the «MDUL»Journal«MDNM» which are still held up in Germany.  I am hoping to have the next two volumes ready for press before the Congress.

I can understand your being bewildered about the matter of the "other four books", particularly as to why your letter about them was not finally «MDUL»massgebend«MDNM» [the deciding factor].  If it were only a question of you and myself the difficulties would long have been over, or would never have arisen.  But you must remember that other people are involved, Rank, Storfer, Rickman, Reece, etc.  Your information must all be obtained from Rank and mine from Rickman (since I have handed over the business to him).  Unfortunately the two do not always tally.  I do not wish to raise the personal questions involved in the relationship of these different persons to one another, but the external facts are these.  For various reasons we have concentrated our hopes of making publishing arrangements on Brentano, of New York and London, the books to be actually printed in America.  They were naturally most eager to have your works.  For a long time we were unable to tell them that we had the American rights of these, and our ambiguous position seems to have aroused doubts and suspicions on their side.  They therefore naturally wish to see what agreements and contracts we have.  Your assurance about your own works helped greatly, but there is still an element of uncertainty about the exact clauses of the contracts regarding the other books, and these will remain until we have actually seen the contracts.  Rank has several times made the suggestion that the American rights of the books be sold separately from English ones, the latter only to go to the Press, and we have had no guarantee from him that his mind is finally made up on this and other points.  Permission has been obtained from the authors for a long while, and negotiations have been going on between Rickman and the Verlag since last April.  I do not know why ‑‑ possibly there are delays on both sides ‑‑ but the fact remains that we have not yet seen any of the contracts.  With these in our hands we should be in a far stronger position to deal with Brentano, and this is all I meant by my remark that the uncertainty and delay were injuring our chances of success.

I am glad to say that apart from the Press things are going very well in England.  I am in good spirits and am working exceptionally hard.  This is due in part to the stimulus of having the opportunity of winning new provinces for psycho‑analysis, e.g. the sociological and anthropological.«FN1.××The lectures which comprise Jones (1924d) were delivered in October and November 1923; see also Jones (1924e).

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Mrs. Riviere has made excellent progress after her operation and I hope to see her in a day or two.

With my warmest wishes for your enjoyment of activity,  Yours,  Ernest Jones