BR TO RUPERT CRAWSHAY-WILLIAMS, 21 SEPT. 1949
BRACERS 56052. ALS. McMaster. SLBR 2: #494
Edited by N. Griffin. Proofread by K. Blackwell

Festinioga
21.9.49

Dear Rupert

My autobiography is now in a state in which it could be finished by some one else, though a good deal of work would be involved. As it will be about a year before I can get back to it, and I may before then be plunged in the Indian Ocean or stranded on a coral reef, I am taking the precaution of giving you my views as to what wants doing.

As to finance: if I can’t finish the work, there will be a lot for you to do. I therefore suggest that, in that case, the royalties should be divided:

30% to each of my children
10% to you.

I don’t know whether it is enough to express my wish, or whether to put it in my will. I shrink from the latter, for fear of death duties. But I will take advice.

The most important function of the autobiography will be to make money, and this should be borne in mind in deciding what to print in the way of letters. The straightforward autobiography (up to 1938) without letters is about 80,000 words.

When I die my MSS should be sold quickly, before I am forgotten. I have many.

I can’t express how grateful I am to you and Elizabeth for your friendship and your interest in me. It has made all the difference to me this summer, when I might otherwise have sunk into a black despair.

Yrs ever
B.R.

Textual Notes

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  Festiniog above deleted <letterhead> Telegraph House Harting, Petersfield.