DLA019-0052  Transcription

7th April, 1930.

Dear Sir,

I am requested by Mr. de Laszlo to acknowledge with thanks your letter of the 3rd^[1] and to ask if you will kindly let him know what fee you are offering for the chapter which you wish him to write for your book “WORLD PROBLEMS OF TO-MORROW.”^[2]

Mr. de Laszlo understands that you have seen Mr. Baldry who will be coming to see him on Wednesday and from whom he will secure further details.^[3] Mr. de Laszlo gathered from his conversation with you, however, that you wish him to write an account of experiences with Royalty, and he wishes me to let you know that this suggestion does not appeal to him, and that, when the time comes to relate such experiences, he wishes to reserve these for his own book on his life. What he has in mind is that Mr. Baldry should write a resumé of his life accompanied by Mr. Baldry’s own ideas and criticism of Mr. de Laszlo’s works. As already mentioned, Mr. de Laszlo would suggest the reproduction of his pictures in the book, those pictures, for example, which are of outstanding importance in his career and for which he has been honoured in various Exhibitions in Europe and America.

Mr. de Laszlo hopes this idea will appeal to you as he feels it would prove of great interest to the world of art and the public in general. He will, however, talk the matter over in detail with Mr. Baldry who no doubt will call on you after their meeting.^[4] Mr. de Laszlo would also like to know what you

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suggest regarding the financial side of it, and looks forward to hearing from you.

Yours faithfully,

Secretary.

Editorial Note:

Albert E. Marriott, one of a number of pseudonyms of Netley Lucas (c. 1903-1940), an infamous fraudster and self-proclaimed “aristocrat of crooks” who had, in 1925, authored the best-selling The Autobiography of a Crook.

SMDL

29/05/2018