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Elderfield, Otterbourne, Winchester.
July 9th 1879

MS British Library Add MSS 54921: 97-98

Dear Mr Macmillan

Here is the list of materials for the little Christmas book.

The MS, and the clipping come herewith the four others must be sent by rail in the books in which they appeared.1 The Autobiography of Patty Applecheeks came out in an American paper, and my copy of it has been lost, but I am sending to Philadelphia to see whether I can recover it. The Wedding cake (a story of a ridiculous mistake) I also sent to America, and was paid for it, but it has never appeared and I am writing to beg that it may. Both these are of the length of the Phantom

If a little more were needed, I could write one more. There are two stories, one called the Banks of the Leamy, which Warne bought for a Christmas annual, and Sea Spleenwort, which Groombridge had, which it is a pity not to recover and unite with the rest, but I cannot afford to advance anything to buy back the copy rights.

What an excellent life of Burns Principal Sharp’s is. He has some qualities (Sharp I mean superior to any writer of the day. I am much tempted to write an answer to the Rights of Woman paper, but I don’t know if Mr Grove would accept my view of the question, and defence of the poor mothers and chaperons1

Yours sincerely
C M Yonge

1She was assembling previously published stories which appeared as Bye-Words (1880).
2Perhaps Florence W. Habberton, ‘Individual Liberty for Women: A Remonstrance’, Macmillan's Magazine 40 (1879), 282-288. George Grove was the editor of Macmillan’s.

Cite this letter


The Letters of Charlotte Mary Yonge(1823-1901) edited by Charlotte Mitchell, Ellen Jordan and Helen Schinske.

URL to this Letter is: https://c21ch.newcastle.edu.au/yonge/2679/to-alexander-macmillan-138

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