BR TO W.W. NORTON & COMPANY, INC. / WARDER NORTON, 2 MAY 1931
BRACERS 47011. TL(CAR). McMaster
Proofread by A. Duncan

2nd May 19311

Dear Norton,

Thank you for your letter of April 22nd. By this time the typescript of my book will be in your hands, and you will be able to decide for yourself what you think about the Chapter on Religion.

Stanley Unwin says that he will let me have proofs in about three weeks. He says that he will send me a spare copy, and that I can send the corrected first proofs to you. This will be just as good for your purposes as if you had the revise, and will save time.

As for articles in The Outlook, I should consider $500.00 a sufficient payment, provided that $450. — came to me, which would make my remuneration be at the rate of five cents a word. But while this would be satisfactory from my point of view, it seems to me that you would naturally expect to get more than 10%. I dare say you could screw up The Outlook a little bit. At any rate, my view is that I should be prepared to take five cents a word and have you keep whatever you can extract from them in excess of that sum.

In this connection one question arises. Chapter IV, called “Scientific Metaphysics”, is in the main composed of two previously published articles: one, a review of Eddington, published under the title “The Twilight of Science”, but I have lost the record as to where it was published; the other, published in the New York Nation last week under the title “What I believe”. I meant to have said in sending you the manuscript of the book that if you have any objection to the incorporation of this material I can write a fresh chapter on the same subject, though it is likely to be less lively than the present chapter. The important thing is that Chapter IV cannot be used for publication in The Outlook. All the rest of the book is new, and is therefore available.

I wrote above in a very hard-boiled manner about the payment I should think suitable from The Outlook, but in actual fact I do not know either what payment would be suitable or what proportion ought to go to you. All I know is that when I write articles which are not going to be immediately embodied in a book, I am apt to get ten cents a word, so that it seems to me five cents might be reasonable in the present case, and it is obvious that what matters to me is my share, and if that is regarded as a datum, the larger your share is, the better.

I am glad you agree about the title.

Yours sincerely,

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  [document] Proofread against a photocopy of the original carbon copy.