ELIZABETH STUART PHELPS WARD - AUTOGRAPH LETTER FRAGMENT SIGNED - HFSID 33243

ELIZABETH STUART PHELPS (WARD)
Signed Autograph Letter Fragment, requesting a higher price for an essay on immortality because the topic is so difficult
Autograph Letter Fragment signed: "E. S. Phelps Ward", 2 pages present (front and verso), 5x8. No place or date present. No addressee here, but obviously written to an editor or publisher. Remaining portion, in full: "would be my fellow contributors in the article on Immortality? And 2nd, what is your utmost - not the least - price you could pay me for the work? A paper of a thousand words on Immortality represents as much work as one of five or six thousand and is more difficult to do well. My price for [next section of text absent] formed in some cases positive refusals; and in all, so obvious a reluctance to such [1 word illegible] that I did not find it practicable to push the matter in any direction. I am sorry. I ought to have written you to this effect before, but my correspondence is all behind hand. Very truly yours, [signature] My address you will find on letterhead." This popular author was born Mary Phelps in 1844. She adopted her mother's name, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, when her mother died in 1852, and it was as Elizabeth Stuart Phelps that she published her first book, one of her popular children's stories, in 1864. In 1888 she married Herbert Dickinson Ward, a journalist 23 years her junior, and they collaborated on some of her later books. Phelps Ward wrote many children's books - often dealing with mature subjects like coping with death. She was among the first to popularize "tomboy" female characters. Her adult novels, beginning with The Gates Ajar (1868), were also popular. Her books included feminist and also religious themes. She died in Newton, Massachusetts in 1911. 2 vertical fold creases. Lightly toned and creased. Corners slightly chipped away. Top edge ragged. Otherwise fine condition.