The echoes of the sale in this country of the rights to Charles Dickens’ “The Life of Our Lord” continue to reverberate. Simon & Schuster, who bought the book rights, sent out a story about the sale of the manuscript, stating that this 16,000-word piece had been sold at the rate of $15.00 per word. Some people thought that this was the sum paid by the two Jewish boys. What they meant was that $240,000 was paid for the world rights by the London newspaper which bought it. S. & S. paid a mere $20,000 for the privilege of bringing out the book in America.
Before the boys from the Inner Sanctum issue the book in May it will have run serially in hundreds of daily newspapers. The right to print the story serially was purchased by the United Feature Syndicate which paid the not inconsiderable sum of $30,000, although the price asked was $50,000. This organization, which is part of the United Press, received for its money both North and South American rights. They have been busy selling individual rights to other papers and I have been told that so far they have grossed $90,000 which certainly should make everyone happy.
Another echo concerning “The Life of Our Lord” is to the effect that the Book of the Month Club is seriously considering making the Dickens work its choice for the merry month of May.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
