“THE SAINT” WRITES TO FELLOW AUTHOR DENNIS WHEATLEY CHARTERIS (Leslie, 1907-1993, Author of ‘The Saint’ Novels)

Remarkable Archive of letters to fellow author Dennis WHEATLEY (1897-1977, Novelist) comprising 10 Typed letters signed ‘Leslie’ or ‘Leslie Charteris’, and one Autograph letter Signed, mostly from St George’s Hill, Weybridge but also, ‘D. Europa, between Southampton and Cherbourg’, Hotel Chatham, New York. and Reno, Nevada, 12 sides A4 with a 4 side Review of the Devil Rides Out and 2 sides 8vo., for the Autograph letter, 1934 to

1. Thanking him for his letter and apologising for the late reply. “this is all very complimentary and fills me with spasms of terror: I could have faced your brother-in-law much more bravely if he was going to ask me ‘What name do you write under?’. However, we should love to drop in for a spot of dinner... if the notice isn’t too short for you - we shall have been in town all day, so I hope you can excuse us if we don’t dress... On Tuesday we are putting on beer and sausages... for any heroes who drop in, and it would be fun if you and your wife could make it.... At present I’m waiting for my ordered copy of THE FABULOUS VALLEY. If it’s as good as BLACK AUGUST it will set my work back for some hours...”, 1 side A4, St George’s, 4th September 1934
2. Telling him that “the two translation firms I mentioned are the Kulturelle Verlagsgesselschaft, Berlin; and the Editorial Juventud, Calle Provenza 101, Barcelona. I’m sorry to have been so remiss about sending on this information. We did enjoy ourselves tremendously at yours the other day, and wish you could have come down here afterwards... the most comfortable way is to borrow a car from Godfrey Davis... I hope the Ethiopian Wizard did his stuff!...”, 1 side A4, St George’s, 25th September 1934
3. Thanking him for a “list of foreign publishers. I shall certainly approach the Italian and Dutch publishers, which are two blank countries on my list, and I shall feel very grateful to you if any business results. I hope you on your part make a deal with Spain and Germany and by the way, there is another country you might tackle at the same time - Portugal... It all mounts up! We enjoyed seeing you again the other day, and hope you weren’t late for your theatre. You must have a drink with me on Wednesday next, when I will try to remember to bring THE FABULOUS VALLEY...”, 1 side A4, St George’s, 29th November 1934
4. Saying he thinks “the summary of our informal discussion just about covers the range, except on a couple of minor points - the last part of item 1, where I thought it was agreed that the members might only be perturbed by being asked to consider technical irregularities; and item 9, which I don’t think was actually raised, but with which I am thoroughly in agreement. Very very strictly between ourselves, though - will the late Chairman look at this item without a blush! I’ll certainly show up on Monday... if I survive the horrors of Christmas, for which God give us strength...”, 1 side A4, St George’s, 24th December 1934
5. The Autograph letter says “So I lost ‘How like an Angel’ after all! I remembered it as soon as I got into Queen’s Gate. Damn & ber-last. Will you look after it till I get back, old man? I think it was on your mantlepiece, close to the Original Green Chartreuse - an incomparable finale! With the portrait of Fred Richardson inside. I expect your maid found it. What a night! I hope you will deal nobly with your prize bottle of whisky. This is all regal luxury. Charles Laughton is with us. So far, we are keeping our food down like ancient mariners...”, 2 sides 8vo, with original envelope, ‘D. Europa, between Southampton and Cherbourg’, 30th March 1935
6. Telling him the “THE DEVIL RIDES OUT is at present in the hands of Jack Fraser, Vice President of the John C. Winston Co. of Philadelphia. I have found that the prejudice against black magic seems to be pretty widespread and this book seems very difficult to handle. However, I’ll let you know if anything should materialize. I suppose you wouldn’t be very keen about having any of these volumes, which haven’t appeared in the United States, cut down to about 25,000 words and published in a cheap magazine, for the magnificent fee of something like $150, but if you thought that this was better than nothing, I might be able to find a few dollars for you that way... By the way, just before we left, Pauline tried to telephone Joan to find out exactly what her taste in stockings was... I hope there are no new additions to your literary family...”, 1 side A4, Hotel Chatham, 23rd April 1935
7. Following on about “Jack Fraser, about whom I wrote recently, has now read THE DEVIL RIDES OUT and is tremendously impressed, not only with the book itself, but with the personal promise which he thinks it shows for your future. While this praise is naturally very difficult for me to understand, I feel that in the circumstances I ought to prepare you for possible developments with some information about his business. The John C. Winston Co. is one of the smaller publishers which... has specialised almost entirely in such innocuous fields as dictionaries, bibles, educational books, and juveniles. They are, however, remarkable salesmen even in these unpromising fields and I see no reason why their resourcefulness should fail them when it comes to handling thrillers... the complication is that Jack Fraser is undecided at the moment whether to launch the Winston Company on a career of ordinary fiction publishing, or to start in an independent publishing business of his own, and until this is decided he is in rather a quandary about what he should do with your material... He is definitely most enthusiastic, and in the case of this particular book not nearly so prejudiced against the black magic angle as other people have been... At this point I come into a rather difficult position as your partial agent because I don’t know what Jane Hardy may have been doing in the meantime since I last spoke to you in England; and if she has been doing well for you in other directions you naturally wouldn’t want to offend her by going behind her back in this matter. At the same time I have the impression that she may not have done a great deal, since I think you told me that you had never had any big American sales. It may be a shock to anyone who knows as well as you do the libelous language in which I have damned many aspects of the literary agency business to hear that I am actually contemplating going into that business myself... I think it is harder to argue against the value of an American agent to an author who lives in England and doesn’t make frequent trips across the Atlantic. There, I think, an agent might have more genuine opportunities to earn his commission; although I should till maintain my unorthodox ideas about his right to go on collecting commissions indefinitely... If I can finally induce her to go into partnership with me... I should leave it in charge of a girl I have known here for many years... the chief assistant of an established New York agent, doing practically all the work while he collects practically all the money... We shall work with a small and hand-picked list; and knowing my views on commission-grasping as well as you do, you won’t be surprised to find a number of unprecedented allowances in our schedule... I don’t wish to embarrass you in any way by touting for business... If this contact which I have made for you is of any use to you, I have done it purely in a friendly spirit, and I most cheerfully hand it over to Jane Hardy if that is what you prefer. I think that in another week or two Jack Fraser will sign an agreement to publish THE DEVIL RIDES OUT and any other books which you have or will have... If you would like to let my embryo agency handle the business... we should naturally be delighted...”, 3 sides A4, Hotel Chatham, 3rd May 1935
8. Thanking him “for the copy of THE EUNUCH OF STAMBOUL; which is a far more than ordinarily valuable gift because it’s one of the few books in the world which I could not possibly have found any excuse for not buying myself, after seeing the priceless passage on the Saint which you showed me in the proofs... congratulations on bringing off the deal with Little Brown. They are an excellent firm, and I hope they will give you the American success which you have been too long waiting for already... I suppose it will gum up the Fraser business, but that can’t be helped. Perhaps there might be just the faintest of all faint possibilities that he might be persuaded to run the other three books in between the three that are being done by Little Brown, with the idea that he could show you sales consistently above the Little Brown mark so that when the time came for making a fresh contract you would be persuaded to go to him and it might be worth having one final shot at Fraser on these lines... with all good wishes for your new story...”, with an autograph postscript apologising for the typed letter but he has “been smitten with a fever & am still shaky...”, 2 sides A4, St George’s, 26th July 1935
9. Sending “a reader’s report on THE DEVIL RIDES OUT, by Carl Harriman, formerly editor of Ladies Home Journal, Green, Book, Red Book, and Blue Book Magazines, which has been sent on to me by Jack Fraser...”, 1 side A4, St George’s, together with the review that he is referring to, 4 sides A4, St George’s, 27th August 1935
10. Thanking him for an invitation and saying that “Pauline is at the sea with the infant, but I will certainly do my best to come and help dispose of her share of the cocktails as was as my own...”, 1 side A4, St George’s, 16th July 1936
11. Saying that he will “notice, your invitation... reached me somewhat late. But I guess you know I wouldn’t have ignored ti... You can always rely on Charteris to be on hand when the wine is flowing - even if it does involve bearing his classic features to the scrutiny which they are not too well equipped to stand...”, 1 side A4, red printed letterhead from Reno Nevada with a picture of a car and caravan and a cartoon of two ‘Saint’ figures, 25th October 1938
Leslie Charteris was a British-Chinese author of adventure fiction, as well as a screenwriter. He was best known for his many books chronicling the adventures of his hero Simon Templar, alias "The Saint". He relocated to the United States in 1932, where he continued to publish short stories and also became a writer for Paramount Pictures.
The Devil Rides Out was written in 1934 and tells a disturbing story of black magic and the occult.

Item Date:  1938

Stock No:  42764      £6750

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