Jules Verne Forum

<jvf@Gilead.org.il>

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec 19961997199819992000200120022003200420052006200720082009

Re: Verne Letter

From: <1001~at~atlanticbb.net>
Date: Fri, 2 Nov 2007 13:00:29 -0500
To: "Jules Verne Forum" <jvf~at~gilead.org.il>

"The Californians; or, Captain and Captain's Wife, By Jules Verne Was
published from Jun 21, 1891 to August 16, 1891, by the Los Angeles Times and
the same translation on the same dates was published by the Sunday Mercury
with the title "The Captain's Wife; or, The Mystery of the Clipper
Dreadnought, by Jules Verne.
The announcement was made in the LA Times, June 20, 1891. announcing that
five authors including Jules Verne were to be featured in full length books
published as "feuilleton", or newspaper version. Includes the following
statement:

"The story which will be commenced tomorrow is "The Californians," By Jules
Verne, the celebrated author of "Around the World in Eighty Days", and other
well-known works...The scenes of this story are laid in the Western States
and off the California coast. The author shows a remarkable familiarity with
this country, its people, customs, geography and resources when we consider
he has never been here. It is a graphic narrative of American enterprise and
Daring.

"We have arranged for the use of this narrative simultaneously with its
serial issue in Paris, and months before its book appearance anywhere. It
will be handsomely illustrated with large cuts, and cannot fail to prove an
attractive new feature of the Sunday Times."

This is a different translation than the Estoclet of Sampson Low and Cassell
and I believe was first located by Victor Berch.

The serialized French version was not completed until December, 1891, and
the book on sale Aug 3, 1891, which might indicate that the Times had
arranged with Hetzel to provide early copies otherwise it is hard to see how
they could have published all of the book in translation by Aug 16, 1891.


nwolcott2~at~post.harvard.edu
----- Original Message -----
From: "Garmt de Vries-Uiterweerd" <g.devries~at~phys.uu.nl>
To: "Jules Verne Forum" <jvf~at~Gilead.org.il>
Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2007 11:11 AM
Subject: Re: Verne Letter


> Dear Norm, friends,
>
> Here is my attempt at a transcription of the letter. It is undoubtedly
> Verne's handwriting, which takes some getting used to... I include the jpg
> of the letter for the sake of completeness, it may disappear from eBay at
> any time.
>
> ----
> Amiens, 12 août [18]91
>
> Cher Monsieur,
>
> Je suis parfaitement l'auteur du roman dont vous venez de m'envoyer la
> traduction, bien qu'on ait modifié certains noms, sans que je sache
> pourquoi. Il paraît dans le Magasin d'Education, Hetzel éditeur Paris, et
> le 1er volume, qui contient la première partie, vient d'être publié ces
> jours-ci. J'envoie votre lettre à M. Hetzel, qui seul a qualité pour vous
> répondre au sujet des traductions. Mais je ne m'explique pas aussi comment
> le journal a pu publier cet ouvrage.
>
> Je ne suis point l'auteur des Mystères du Franklin, parus en Amérique, et
> c'est à tort qu'on me l'attribue.
>
> Recevez, cher Monsieur, l'assurance de toutes mes considérations [?]
>
> Jules Verne
> ----
>
> English translation:
>
> ----
> Amiens, 12 August [18]91
>
> Dear Sir,
>
> I am indeed the author of the novel of which you have sent me the
> translation, even if certain names have been changed, I do not know why.
> It appears in the Magasin d'Education, publisher Hetzel Paris, and the
> first volume, containing the first part, has just been published these
> days. I send your letter to Mr Hetzel, who alone has the authority to
> answer you concerning translations. But I cannot understand either how the
> newspaper could publish this work.
>
> I am not the author of the "Mysteries of the Franklin", published in
> America, and its attribution to me is incorrect.
>
> I am, Sir, yours sincerely,
>
> Jules Verne
> ----
>
> Now what can we say about the details mentioned in this letter? Apparently
> an American newspaper published a (probably illegal) translation of one of
> Verne's novels, and a reader got curious and wrote to Verne about it.
> Since the letter was written on 12 August 1891, and the novel was at the
> time being serialised in the Magasin, and moreover the 1st volume had just
> appeared, it can only be Mistress Branican that the letter is about: it
> appeared in Magasin from 1 January to 15 December 1891, and the 1st volume
> was published on 3 August).
>
> When Verne says that "Mysteries of the Franklin" is incorrectly attributed
> to him, I believe he is mistaken. In fact, an English translation of
> Mistress Branican appeared under the title "The Mystery of the Franklin".
> Andrew Nash (http://julesverne.ca/vernebooks/jvbkmistress.html) mentions
> this title for an undated edition by Street and Smith, New York, and
> guesses a date of 1903. Ealier editions all carry the title "Mistress
> Branican". Andrew, would you care to explain how you arrived at a date of
> 1903? It may be that another publisher already used the title "Mystery of
> the Franklin" for an earlier edition. This would be a new item to be added
> to the English/American Jules Verne bibliography.
>
> Cheers,
> Garmt.
>
>
> On Tue, 30 Oct 2007 16:20:08 +0100, <1001~at~atlanticbb.net> wrote:
>
> > Of interest to American Vernians is the Verne letter to a newspaper in
> > California, recently sold on ebay for $1120.
> > The letter refers apparently to his novel the Californians which was
> > published In a Los Angeles newspaper. Does this refer to the letter to
> > Verne from a woman in California, which at some time past was in this
> > discussion? There someone said the letter had been published in a
> > journal, but I have not researched/found this letter. Could someone
> > deciipher this auction letter and give us the french and english
> > versions?? There are good images of letter/envelope on ebay for a little
> > while.
> > The ebay auction is at
> > http://cgi.ebay.com/1891-SIGNED-JULES-VERNE-LETTER-AUTHOR-FRANCE-ENVELOP
> > E_W0QQitemZ200164004134QQihZ010QQcategoryZ14428QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQ
> > cmdZViewItem
> > <http://cgi.ebay.com/1891-SIGNED-JULES-VERNE-LETTER-AUTHOR-FRANCE-ENVELO
> > PE_W0QQitemZ200164004134QQihZ010QQcategoryZ14428QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1Q
> > QcmdZViewItem>
> > AMAZING ITEM, AUTOGRAPH LETTER, SIGNED BY JULES VERNE, GUARANTEED
> > ORIGINAL, CHECK MY FEEDBACK AND BID WITH CONFIDENCE, IN ORIGINAL
> > ENVELOPE WITH 3 FRENCH STAMPS POSTMARKED AMIENS SOMME 8/12/1891 (In
> > 1888, Jules Verne entered politics and was elected town councilor of
> > Amiens, where he championed several improvements and served for fifteen
> > years), SENT TO USA, BACKSTAMPED LOS ANGELES CA, VIA NEW YORK PAID ALL
> > 8/21/1891, SENT TO THE EVENING EXPRESS COMPANY, LOS ANGELES CA, THIS WAS
> > A LOS ANGELES NEWSPAPER WHICH ONLY EXISTED FROM UNTIL 1901, GREAT
> > SIGNATURE, LETTER MENTIONS "1st VOLUME," PROBABLY REFERRING TO ONE OF
> > HIS BOOKS, SANDERS CATALOG VALUE IS $1120.00 !!!!! SCARCE
> > !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SEE PHOTOS, NO RESERVE, Shipping and Handling is
> > $2.00 if in US, or
> > nwolcott2~at~post.harvard.edu <mailto:nwolcott2~at~post.harvard.edu>
>
>
Received on Fri 02 Nov 2007 - 20:05:28 IST

JV.Gilead.org.il
Copyright © Zvi Har’El
$Date: 2009/02/01 22:36:11 $$