A. Merritt is no stranger to readers of the DMR blog. Deuce Richardson and Chris L. Adams have posted several times in the past few years about this noted author. In his heyday from the late teens of the nineteenth century to the early 1950s, he was arguably the most popular fantasy author in America. His novel The Ship of Ishtar was voted by the readers of Argosy as the most popular story to have appeared in the pages or Argosy or All Story, consigning Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan of the Apes to second place. At one point his short story, “The Woman of the Wood,” was voted the most popular story to have appeared in Weird Tales, over stories by Robert E. Howard, H.P. Lovecraft and many others. Not only was his work reprinted regularly in the pulps, in the pages of Famous Fantastic Mysteries and Fantastic Novels, but he also was the only pulp author to have a pulp named after him – A. Merritt’s Fantasy Magazine.

With the advent of the paperback book, Merritt (who by then had passed away) made the transition to the new medium, with Avon leading the charge in keeping Merritt in print for the next several decades. Chris Adams has written for the DMR blog about collecting those Avon paperbacks – which went through numerous printings –and has shown some of the great cover art that appeared on them. I thought I’d share here some rare paperwork relating to those Avon reprints.

Last summer, I was fortunate enough to acquire the copyrights to Merritt’s material from the previous owners. Along with the rights, I received a few boxes of papers, which I’ve enjoyed going through during the past few months, and which I anticipate will provide me with many more enjoyable evenings perusing them. Among these were papers relating to Merritt and the Avon reprints. Some of this takes the form of correspondence between Merritt’s widow, Eleanor, and the literary agent she’d engaged for Merritt’s work, Brandt & Brandt. Others are contracts with Avon, as well as Avon royalty statements.

First up is a contract dated November 17, 1943, relating to The Ship of Ishtar. Over time, Eleanor and Avon would sign many contracts for this book (as the others lapsed, and Avon wanted to come out with new editions), which was standard procedure for Merritt’s other books as well. This is the earliest one I have in my files, and at that time, Avon was under the corporate name Illustrated Editions Co. This was for the $.25 edition, with royalties starting at ½ cent per copy up to 100,000 copies sold, and one cent thereafter, with an advance of $250 for the first 50,000 copies sold.

1943 11 17 avon ship of ishtar contract page 1.jpg

1943 11 17 avon ship of ishtar contract page 2.jpg

The next contract I’ll show is similar. This one is dated December 13, 1949, for the anthology, The Fox Woman and Other Stories. This edition was to have a $.35 cover price, with a royalty rate of one cent per copy sold, and an advance of $1,000 on the first 100,000 copies sold.

1949 12 13 avon fox woman contract page 1.jpg

1949 12 13 avon fox woman contract page 2.jpg

As time went on, Eleanor and her agents advocated for larger royalties in subsequent contracts. To illustrate this, here are two letters from B&B to Eleanor. The first, dated September 21, 1956, relates to The Ship of Ishtar and The Metal Monster and increases the royalties to 1.04 cents per copy on the first 150,000 copies and 2.1 cents per copy thereafter. The second, dated November 9, 1964, relates to a new agreement for those two novels, with a royalty of 6% of the retail price.

Once the contracts were signed and the books published, copies began to be sold and royalty statements were created. These statements (and the related checks) were sent to B&B, which took out their 10% commission and forwarded a net check on to Eleanor. Here’s a sample of a typical transmittal letter, dated February 25, 1954, relating to The Ship of Ishtar, The Metal Monster and The Fox Woman.

The earliest royalty statement I have in the files is on Illustrated Editions Company letterhead (noting that they’re the “Publishers of Avon Books and Periodicals”) and dated December 17, 1946, relating to the $250 advance due on publication for The Metal Monster, which ran in Murder Mystery Monthly #41, published that same day.

1946 12 17 avon royalty statement metal monster in murder mystery monthly.jpg

Next up is a royalty statement dated January 20, 1955, which is the latest statement I have for the September 22, 1949 printing of The Fox Woman (Avon Books #214). At that point, the book had sold 75,115 copies. The sale of 1,172 copies in the second half of 1954 resulted in a royalty of $11.72, leaving $27.88 left prepaid on the advance.

1955 01 20 avon royalty statement fox woman.jpg

The July 20, 1955 royalty statement for The Metal Monster (Avon Books #315) is the latest I have for this edition, published on February 6, 1951. Sales through this period came to 96,164, and the incremental sales of 2,139 copies during the first half of 1955 generated a royalty check of $10.70 (this book was at ½ cent per copy, unlike the edition of The Fox Woman (above) or The Ship of Ishtar (below), both of which were at one cent per copy.

1955 07 20 avon royalty statement metal monster.jpg

Finally, the royalty statement dated January 20, 1957 for The Ship of Ishtar (Avon Books #324, published June 12, 1951), which is the latest statement I have for this edition, shows sales through the reporting period of 140,316, generating a royalty check of $50.51 on the incremental sales of 5,051 copies in the second half of 1956.

1957 01 20 avon royalty statement ship of ishtar.jpg

Doug Ellis has been collecting pulp magazines, original pulp art and related ephemera for more than 40 years. He is a co-organizer of The Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention, held every year in the suburbs of Chicago (this year's show is April 17-19, 2020 at the Westin Lombard Yorktown Center in Lombard, IL). His recent books include co-editing The Art of the Pulps and The Collectors Book of Virgil Finlay (which features a lot of Merritt related art).