A journey through Aboriginal Australia
04.01.1899. From E. B. T. (in Oxford) to B. S. More about Miss Howitt’s MS. Another dig at Frazer.
Letters from (Sir) Edward Burnett Tylor
At Linden
Wellington, Somerset.
THE MUSEUM HOUSE,
OXFORD.
[margin note] replied Nb. 22/99.
Jan 4 1899
Dear Spencer
Have I written or spoken to you about Miss Howitt’s Australian Folk Tales? Howitt wished them sent back by you if I could not find a
publisher. Macmillans refused the MS., so I sent it to Alfd Nutt from whom I have a letter finding fault with its form, refusing to publish it himself, & holding out some rather vague hope of the Folk Lore Society taking it up after a time. If I was sure of your present address I would send you Nutt’s letter & get him to forward the MS to you. I almost think that the best way would be to send the MS back to Australia, and let Howitt have Nutt’s letter also. What do you think? Did I
express to you my amusement at hearing Frazer on the character of a totem – convert preaching a totem–doctrine absolutely contradicting & ignoring that which he has been successfully circulating for years
Yours ….
E B Tylor
Rights: Pitt Rivers Museum
