Newberry Library - Doubleday and Company Inc., to Rose, Ben Hecht incoming correspondence, 1963-1965

Doubleday and Company Inc., to Rose, Ben Hecht incoming correspondence, 1963-1965

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Open book Doubleday and Company Inc., to Rose, Ben Hecht incoming correspondence, 1963-1965

Title Doubleday and Company Inc., to Rose, Ben Hecht incoming correspondence, 1963-1965

Creator Hecht, Ben, 1894-1964

Date 1963-1965

Place Germany, Germany--Berlin, Illinois--Chicago, Palestine, United States

Language English

Subjects Authors, American, Chicago Daily News, Inc, Dramatists, American, Irgun tsevaʼi leʼumi, Screenwriters

Description Ben Hecht was a novelist, playwright, and screenwriter.

Format Correspondence

User-Contributed Transcription [penciled notation] Cowlins [/penciled notation]
[typed pages were cut out and taped to a piece of paper with blue handwriting by each piece]

[Letterhead]
DOUBLEDAY & COMPANY, INC. Publishers
[illustration] anchor in an oval [/illustration]
277 PARK AVENUE, NEEW YORK, N. Y. 10017 TEL: 212 TA 6-2000
[/letterhead]

[typed] February 3, 1965

Mrs. Ben Hecht
Perry Lane
Nyack, New York [/typed]

[blue handwriting response to right of above address] Dear Charlie: Since this concerns the lawyers, I want you to know the facts. I asked them to drop conversations.) [/blue handwriting response to right of above address]

[typed and taped to page] Dear Mrs. Hecht:

Mr. Hecht chose to make his contract on LETTERS FROM BOHEMIA directly with Doubleday. I would have preferred, personally, to have it made through Lucy Kroll, and I found it embarrassing that she was not considered. [/typed and taped to page]

[blue handwriting response] A horrid lie and too nasty to argue, [/blue handwriting respons]

[typed and taped to page] Mr. Hecht received the standard publishing contract, which is essentially the same as the contract of any publisher in business. I find it hard to believe that a professional and the author of so many published volumes did not read the contract.[/typed and taped to page]

[blue handwriting response] It happens that that was the reason Mr. Hecht had an agent - in this case, Lucy Kroll, Ben and I thought the contract had gone to Lucy, and I can prove that. [/blue handwriting response]

[typed and taped to page] I continue to think it was worthwhile to postpone publication of the book to accomodate Playboy's purchase of one excerpt, since this represented income for the estate and a certain amount of publicity for the book. [/typed and taped to page]

[red handwriting] Nobody raised such a question [red handwriting]

[blue handwriting response] So the "estate" myself and my daughter or did Ben make Doubleday's the beneficiary? Anyway, this paragraph is an evasion of the issue - the money. [/blue handwriting response]

[typed and taped to page] It is impossible for me to believe that I brought pressure on you to sign anything, since we have never met. I forwarded the instructions of the business department, routine in the handling of estate matters. [/typed and taped to page]

[blue handwriting response] She deliberately misquotes me. I said that Mr. Nelson Doubleday tricked me into reaffirming a contract I did not know was different from Lucy Kroll's contract, when I thought I was signing "executor" papers, at a terrible time in my life. [/blue handwriting response]

[typed and taped to page] I don't know whether or not Mr. Hecht intended to refuse this option, since he signed the contract. He often mentioned a book called SHYLOCK, MY BROTHER, to me and I can only suppose that he would not have discussed it with me if he proposed to take it elsewhere. [/typed and taped to page]

[blue handwriting response] He may have mentioned it to her, for he was working on it. He "discussed" it with Mr. Conci and I did too, and I have a letter from Mr. Conci to prove it. [/blue handwriting response]

Transcription Status Needs review

Transcription Note This document was transcribed by volunteers as part of the Newberry Transcribe crowdsourcing initiative.

Archival Collection Title Ben Hecht papers, Midwest Manuscript Collection, Society of Collectors

Link to Catalog View finding aid | View record

Call Number Midwest MS Hecht Box 57 Folder 1196

BibID 992595638805867

Rights Status Copyright Not Evaluated

Contributing Institution Newberry Library

Newberry Open Access Policy The Newberry makes its collections available for any lawful purpose, commercial or non-commercial, without licensing or permission fees to the library, subject to these terms and conditions.

IIIF Resource Type Canvas

Size 3464px × 4401px 87.27 MB

File Created 02/22/2024

Filename 992595638805867_midwest_ms_hecht_box_00057_fl_01196_000010.tif

Unique Identifier NL125QNJ

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