London: Ward, Lock & Co. Limited,, 1945-46-50-53. The Bodley Head saves the Poldark series from obscurity A superb collection, highlighting the transfer of copyright of the first four titles in the phenomenally successful Poldark series from the original publishers, who had let the quartet go out of printm to the Bodley Head. This move led to a reissue of the titles in a new format, which helped pave the way for its eventual television adaptation, first by the BBC in 1975 and again in 2015. The collection comprises the publisher's file copies of the Poldark quartet in first edition, accompanied by the publishing contracts signed by the author, the contract for Cordelia (a historical novel outside the Poldark series), together with correspondence between the author, his literary agency A. M. Heath, and Ward, Lock regarding the transfer of copyright. Graham highlights the significance of this for his career in his Memoirs: "Had the first four Poldarks not been republished by Bodley Head in an attractive new format, they would have been out of print for years... and much less likely to catch the eye of Robert Clark and other film-makers" (pp. 1934). The film industry had shown only desultory interest in the Poldark novels until they were picked up by Robert Clark, the millionaire chairman of Associated British Pictures; it was he who persuaded the BBC in producing the first four books as the TV series Poldark that hit the screens in the 1970s. In 1957, Ward, Lock informed Graham that they were allowing all four books to fall out of print. The following year Graham's friend Max Reinhardt, having recently acquired the Bodley Head, invited Graham to switch publishers, offering to republish his earlier novels. The Poldark series eventually comprised 12 books but there was a hiatus of 20 years before Graham resumed the fifth instalment in 1973. The contracts for Ross Poldark, dated 24 August 1945, and Demelza, dated 17 December 1946, were both cancelled on 1 June 1959, and the books republished by the Bodley Head in 1960. The contract for the third and fourth Poldark instalments, titled "the next two historical novels to follow Cordelia", is dated 19 September 1949 and cancelled on 24 August 1960. Although the titles of Jeremy Poldark and Warleggan had not been decided at the point of the contract being signed, it shows that by 1949 Graham had a clear grasp of what it would take to complete his Poldark saga as then conceived. Jeremy Poldark and Warleggan were republished by the Bodley Head in 1961 and followed by Cordelia in 1963, the original contract for which is also included here, dated 6 October 1948 and cancelled 7 February 1961. The Cordelia contract is significant as it is both the first to name A. M. Heath, who had recently taken on Graham as a client, and the first to secure him a three-figure advance. Audrey Heath's literary agency, still operating today, represented him for the rest of his career. After Heath's death in 1958, Michael Thomas took over responsibility for Graham, having answered a trade advertisement for a "'Young Man With A View', £10 per week". The correspondence in the archive includes copies of two typed letters between Michael Thomas and Monica Bax, the assistant fiction editor at Ward, Lock, settling the cancellation of the original contracts between Ward, Lock and Graham. In the first, dated 26 May 1959, Bax writes to Thomas, confirming that the first two Poldark books "are now out of print and we have no plans for reissuing them as from June 1st of this year, and suggest the two contracts dated 24th August, 1945 and 17th December, 1946 be accordingly cancelled"; however, she notes that Jeremy Poldark and Warleggan were contracted together in a single document, and as Warleggan was still in print, the two books could not be cancelled. She asks if "the matter could be settled by this exchange of letters, with the necessary note made on the contract itself?"; Thomas's reply, dated 3 June 1959, confirms "the matter be settled by this exchange of letters". The first two Poldark books sold so well that the Bodley Head proceeded with publication of the other two books in the quartet, and the second pair of letters, dated the following year, concludes the exchange of rights. Graham's principal contact at Ward, Lock was Eric Shipton, "an ex-soldier with much greater charm and address than [Wilfred Lock], but not a man in the literary swim" (ibid., p. 102). In a typed letter signed, 21 August 1960, Graham tells Shipton that the Bodley Head "have written to me this week asking if the fourth of the series is now out of print... I seem to remember in my last statement from Ward, Lock that this book had just been remaindered". Shipton's reply a few days later, dated 24 August 1960, confirms that Warleggan "is now officially out of print... I do hope that all four books do really well; they certainly deserve to". "By the time of his death, on 10 July 2003 [Graham] had produced a host of believable, often off-centre, characters in highly charged emotional and professional situations - while avoiding, he insisted, what he whole-heartedly detested, the so-called 'bodice-ripper'. He was a real writer of the old school, while drawing on some more contemporary mores, including giving his women an independent strength of character that was far from usual when he began his single-minded career" (ODNB). Four works, octavo. Original cloth, spines lettered in gilt, black, or brown, publisher's file copy printed shelf sticker pasted to front covers. With dust jackets; Ross Poldark and Warleggan with publisher's file copy printed label pasted to front panels. Together with: 4 publisher's typed contracts, each comprising 2 typed sheets: a) Ross Poldark; b) Demelza; c) Jeremy Poldark and Warleggan; d) Cordelia; e) copy of typed letter dated 26 May 1959 from Monica Bax, assistant fiction editor at Ward, Lock to Michael Thomas, Messrs A. M. Heath & Co. Ltd, 35 Dover Street, London, W1; f) copy of Michael Thomas's reply to Bax, dated 3 June 1959; g) typed letter signed from Winston Graham to Eric Shipton dated 21 August 1960 on headed paper from Villa Caprice, Avenue Jean-Mermoz, Saint Jean-Cap-Ferrat; h) typed letter from Shipton to Graham dated 24 August 1960; i) Undated autograph note to "Miss H" on verso of a Ward, Lock jacket design ("The point of this is, as you will gather, that our agreement regarding Warleggan has determined. T."; f) undated autograph note "C. J. Lock, sub-sid rights. Please note. TAS.28/8/60". Books retained by Ward, Lock, & Co. as "archive" or "file" copies and are stamped as such in ink on the half-titles or title pages. A nice set in bright dust jackets, extremities rubbed, a few shallow chips but well-preserved, unclipped. Contracts in excellent condition, a little creased but clean. Correspondence folded for posting, clean, couple of rust marks from paperclip. Winston Graham, Memoirs of a Private Man, 2003.
