UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

System Number: 01666
Date: [3/13 October 1899]^[1]
Author: JW
Place: Pourville-sur-Mer
Recipient: J. W. Gilmer^[2]
Place: [London]
Repository: Glasgow University Library
Call Number: MS Whistler G32
Document Type: ALS^[3]

Dear Mr Gilmer -

It is very kind of you to go on taking this trouble for me - and I feel I am too readily abusing your courteous good nature - for you see I go on! -

Mr Heinemann^[4] was going to find some one to take Mrs Andersons^[5] place - Now what is to be done? -

I think it really [p. 2] injurious to affairs that the Company of the Butterfly should remain without representative! apparently colapsed [sic]! just as it is taking a firm position not only abroad (very distinctly in America) but also in London itself -

Couldn't you, don't you think, open the letters, and send a word in reply, generally, to the effect, more or less, that the matter - whatever it might be - would be put before the Directors of the Company immediately - that, for the moment, they are away - You might consult with Mr Heinemann, and ask him what he thinks of this - And if a visit of any kind were proposed, or announced, perhaps an appointment might be made, and the people seen with proper state and importance!? -

What about Sir W. B. Richmond's^[6] letter urging the Academy to boycott the Paris Exhibition^[7]?! - I have asked Mr Heinemann to send it to me - and I have had as yet nothing from him - -

And the Mr Street^[8] affair? No answer to that have I had -

Now this is most "particular" : -

I want you to note this difference in postal address - the [p. 3] authorities have ordered that the letters for Pourville shall no longer go, or come through Dieppe - but through Off[r]anville - so you must direct all future letters:

Pavillon Madeleine
Pourville-sur-Mer
par Offranville^[9].

otherwise endless delay -

Again with all my thanks,
Very Sincerely

J McNeill Whistler

I received a^[10] letter from you the other day, forwarded to me in Paris, where I had gone for the moment - You spoke of going to see Mr Webb^[11], - have you written since? -

I ask because of these new arrangements in the Post -

This document is protected by copyright.

Notes:

1.  [3/13 October 1899]
Dated from the change in JW's address (see #00036).

2.  J. W. Gilmer
J. W. Gilmer, employee or associate of William Heinemann [more].

3.  ALS
The letter was written in pencil; the paper has a deep mourning border.

4.  Mr Heinemann
William Heinemann (1863-1920), publisher [more].

5.  Mrs Andersons
Mrs Christine Anderson, manager of the 'Company of the Butterfly' [more]. She had just resigned from the post of manager of the Company.

6.  Sir W. B. Richmond's
William Blake Richmond (1842-1921), portrait painter and sculptor [more].

7.  Exhibition
Universal Exhibition, Paris, 1900.

8.  Mr Street
George Slythe Street (1867-1936), author [more].

9.  Offranville
Double underlined.

10.  Mr Webb
William Webb (b. ca 1851), of G. and W. Webb, lawyer [more].

11.  I received a ... Post -
The rest of the letter is written in the left margin of p. 1, at right-angles to the main text.