W. H. FREEMAN AND COMPANY « 549 MARKET STREET, SAN FRANCISCO 5, CALIFORNIA

June 1, 1954

Dr. Joshua Lederberg
Department of Genetics
College of Agriculture

The University of Wisconsin
Madison 6, Wisconsin

Dr. Edward A. Steinhaus
Department of Biological Control
Laboratory of Insect Pathology
University of California
Berkeley 4, California

My dear Sirs;

I can now give you a decision regarding our
publication of Buchner's Endosymbiosis. You may each be
interested in the background thinking. Hence this letter to
you both.

I have done three things: First, I wrote a handful
of carefully selected biologists, each of whom I thought--and
believe you two would think--would be discriminating and most
apt to favor this sort of publication. Next, I figured the
investment that would be involved and the potential sale.
Third, I considered the problem of a translator and his recom-
pense,

I have decided that we cannot, at this moment, under-
take to publish a translation, though we may very well at some
time in the future and under the proper circumstances--of
which more below.

First, the biologists I chose all seemed to agree
that it would be a nice thing to have the book available in
English--for others, but not for themselves since they have
read the German edition; and each of them seemed to feel that
investing our time and money in other projects would be more
valuable to biology as a whole. This reaction that says,
"Others might buy it, but I wouldn't," is a most discouraging
one, aS you can imagine, Therefore, I concluded that Dr.
Goldschmidt's estimate of the sale as 2000 to 3000 copies, as
reported by you, Dr. Steinhaus, was, if anything, optimistic
for a $16.00 book.

Second, because of the general recognition of this
book as a classic, I was willing to estimate the financial
gamble involved on the basis of a 2000-copy sale over three
or four years. I found that we would have a loss, but a small
one, so that I would be willing to approve it were enthusiasm
for the book greater and were the third problem (see below)
W. H. FREEMAN AND COMPANY *¢ 549 MARKET STREET, SAN FRANCISCO 5, CALIFORNIA

Dr. Lederberg
Dr. Steinhaus -2- June 1, 1954

solved. Of course, I would not approve it unless satisfactory
answers to the other two questions were found.

Third, there is the matter of a translator. If our
investment in this book would, as I estimate it, be purely a
labor of love, the work of the translator would be even more
so. I would not ask anyone to undertake this task for the sum
of money that a 2000-copy--or even a 3000-copy--~sale would
mean could be paid to the translator. One would be working
for less than a clerk's wages.

Therefore, I feel the idea of this translation should
be dropped for the present. However, I ask each of you to
file in the back of your mind two items of information. First,
we want to publish significant monographs whenever we can.
Second, we want to do so when some individual--graduate student,
scholar, or the like--knowing he cannot be repaid any more
than we can, undertakes, of his own volition and for his own
fun, to do the translation of such a work. So, should either
of you ever come upon such an individual with such an inten-
tion, in the case of the Buchner book or any other of Similar
value, do not hesitate again to raise this or a Similar
suggestion with us.

Sincerely yours,

WH Fee

W. OH. Freeman

WHF :mc