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Pan Demos, v. 1, issue 2, March 1949
Page 8
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pany, Wollheim was to control 500 percent, and John Michel, an outsider to the project was to have the remaining 300. As Hannes said to me after the conference on this subject, the last mentioned was 'not one of my closest admirers'. The arrangement did not suit him, so as the advice of a relative of mine, I consulted an attorney who was of the same opinion, and who advised me to purchase the manuscripts in my own name and sublet them, provided the terms of the sublet suited Hannes and myself. This latest development was looked upon as high treason by the Wollheim faction, and the supposed partners informed Hannes that they did not care to operate a firm under these circumstances. Thereupon, we set about to publish the books ourselves. We were without a single cent to attempt such a large project. Hannes' work for the magazines was highly underpaid, and numerous fans had wheedled him out of countless valuable originals without one offer of payment. I was working at the time in an art gallery and book shop, and the salary was not the kind to threaten the Dupont millions. In the last moment, on the day our option on the manuscripts lapsed, we raised the necessary amount though a friend of Hannes' and a relative of mine, and that night we began to plan the finished books. Hannes read and re-read the Fox Woman fragments, as did I. It was Hannes who recalled that Merritt had intended to write a story about ancient Chinese sorcery in modern New York, and indeed, when we read the beginning we were convinced that we had found the right path. Mrs. Merritt told us that she was of the opinion that Merritt had conceived the fragment in the middle twenties, about 1924, and Hannes, who is an astute grammarian and student of His Style, was of the same line of thought. The story, as far as Merritt had worked, left no cliffhanger except the motive of revenge, and it was with this as the predominent and justified motif that he set about to 8
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pany, Wollheim was to control 500 percent, and John Michel, an outsider to the project was to have the remaining 300. As Hannes said to me after the conference on this subject, the last mentioned was 'not one of my closest admirers'. The arrangement did not suit him, so as the advice of a relative of mine, I consulted an attorney who was of the same opinion, and who advised me to purchase the manuscripts in my own name and sublet them, provided the terms of the sublet suited Hannes and myself. This latest development was looked upon as high treason by the Wollheim faction, and the supposed partners informed Hannes that they did not care to operate a firm under these circumstances. Thereupon, we set about to publish the books ourselves. We were without a single cent to attempt such a large project. Hannes' work for the magazines was highly underpaid, and numerous fans had wheedled him out of countless valuable originals without one offer of payment. I was working at the time in an art gallery and book shop, and the salary was not the kind to threaten the Dupont millions. In the last moment, on the day our option on the manuscripts lapsed, we raised the necessary amount though a friend of Hannes' and a relative of mine, and that night we began to plan the finished books. Hannes read and re-read the Fox Woman fragments, as did I. It was Hannes who recalled that Merritt had intended to write a story about ancient Chinese sorcery in modern New York, and indeed, when we read the beginning we were convinced that we had found the right path. Mrs. Merritt told us that she was of the opinion that Merritt had conceived the fragment in the middle twenties, about 1924, and Hannes, who is an astute grammarian and student of His Style, was of the same line of thought. The story, as far as Merritt had worked, left no cliffhanger except the motive of revenge, and it was with this as the predominent and justified motif that he set about to 8
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