9 February 1927  81 Harley Street  London W1

Dear Professor,

Your kindly and soothing letter had an instantaneous effect on the little that was left of my "schlechte Laune" [bad mood] (which with me is always mobile and never very serious), and I thank you for it.

My infrequent news about our publishing activities is solely due to the infrequency of the activities themselves; when there is news I invariably include it in the Rundbrief.  As regards the only two remaining books of yours the position is this: Strachey has already translated most of the Selbstdarstellung, and the only reason for delay is that the funds (of both the Institute and the Hogarth Press) have been strained to their limits by publishing three books this winter (Ich u Es, Ferenczi, and Abraham).^[1]  I will let you have further news as soon as it is available.  The question of the Laienanalyse is more complicated, first by the fact that no commercial sale can be expected from it and secondly by the point you make of its actuality.  In these circumstances, much as I desire to secure as many of your works as possible for our Library series, I hardly feel justified in asking you to refuse any American offer you may have for the book.  I say this most unwillingly, but I see that you would be disappointed if its appearance were delayed ‑‑ which it probably would in England.

Your other question implies (unjustifiably, as I think) that I am indifferent to the propaganda in America.  I make no distinction between Great Britain and America in this respect, and mean both when I speak of an 'English' translation.  Of the six books of yours in our series (4 Collected Papers, Mass Psychology and Pleasure Principle) we have sold more in America than here.  I do not say we have sold more there than an American firm could have done, on the contrary, but this has been a difficult technical question.  So far we have failed in getting any American firm to take up the sale of the books, in spite of many efforts, and so have had to sell them from here.  Last week your nephew, Bernays, wrote to the Hogarth Press on this matter, and I hope they will make some arrangement.  It is, however, a purely business affair in which we should not interfere.  The H. Press have bought from the Verlag the legal rights of the sole authorised translation, with the sales all over the world, including America.  They can of course sublet, as it were, the American sale to a firm in that country.  It is true that, as no book published in Europe secures copyright in America, any American can issue a 'pirated' edition, but this very rarely happens with scientific books and so the Hogarth Press took the risk.  I gave them at the same time the moral understanding that at least no other authorised translation would appear in America to compete with theirs.  I can assure you that I am deeply concerned with this question of sale in America, and shall be glad to find any way of improving it.

I hope that these remarks clear the situation still further.

I have been ill for three weeks with severe influenza and complications (bronchitis and otitis), but am again better; I only missed two days' work.  I hope you all escaped the epidemic.

With kindest regards  yours always  Ernest Jones

^[1]           Freud (1923b), Ferenczi (1926b) and Abraham (1927).