H.G. Wells, [not before 1914]

WELLS, Herbert George (1866–1946). ALS, 'H.G. Wells', to William Morris Colles, [not before 1914].

Wells rails against devious agents falsely offering film rights, to literary agent William Morris Colles. In the September of 1914, H.G. Wells wrote to William Morris Colles (1855–1926) to discuss the serialization of his novel The World Set Free published earlier that year. Evidently, Colles and other agents were liberally offering adaptation rights for Wells works – which at this point included The Time Machine, The Invisible Man and scores of other titles – and Wells caught wind of it. He opens his letter, ‘I’m out with sword [and] brand to kill all agents who “but in” between publishers [and] authors’, concluding with a warning to Colles: ‘I am setting off guns to kill intrusive agents [and] I’d grin beyond measure if a flying fragment came your way.’

1 page in ink on ‘Little Easton Rectory, Dunmow’ letterhead, signed "H.G. Wells" (172 × 210 mm, by sight). Framed and matted by Bryan L. Nerone & Co., Beverly Hills, with photograph portrait of Wells. Not inspected out of frame.