§ 5. On registering Correspondence.

Let me recommend you to keep a record of Letters Received and Sent. I have kept one for many years, and have found it of the greatest possible service, in many ways: it secures my answering Letters, however long they have to wait; it enables me to refer, for my own guidance, to the details of previous correspondence, though the actual Letters may have been destroyed long ago; and, most valuable feature of all, if any difficulty arises, years afterwards, in connection with a half-forgotten correspondence, it enables me to say, with confidence, “I did not tell you that he was ‘an invaluable servant in every way’, and that you couldn’t ‘trust him too much’. I have a précis of my letter. What I said was ‘he is a valuable servant in many ways, but don’t trust him too much’. So, if he’s cheated you, you really must not hold me responsible for it!”

I will now give you a few simple Rules for making, and keeping, a Letter-Register.

Get a blank book, containing (say) 200 leaves, about 4 inches wide and 7 high. It should be well fastened into its cover, as it will have to be opened and shut hundreds of times. Have a line ruled, in red ink, down each margin of every page, an inch off the edge (the margin should be wide enough to contain a number of 5 digits, easily: I manage with a ¾ inch margin: but, unless you write very small you will find an inch more comfortable).

Write a précis of each Letter, received or sent, in chronological order. Let the entry of a ‘received’ Letter reach from the left-hand edge to the right-hand marginal line; and the entry of a ‘sent’ Letter from the left-hand marginal line to the right-hand edge. Thus the two kinds will be quite distinct, and you can easily hunt through the ‘received’ Letters by themselves, without being bothered with the ‘sent’ Letters; and vice versâ.

Use the right-hand pages only: and, when you come to the end of the book, turn it upside-down, and begin at the other end, still using right-hand pages. You will find this much more comfortable than using left-hand pages.

You will find it convenient to write, at the top of every sheet of a ‘received’ Letter, its Register-Number in full.

I will now give a few (ideal) specimen pages of my Letter-Register, and make a few remarks on them: after which I think you will find it easy enough to manage one for yourself.

 

29217	/90.
(217) sendg, J., a	Ap. 1 (Tu.) Jones, Mrs. am as present from self and Mr. white elephant.	27518 225
(218) grand	do. Wilkins & Co. bill, for piano, £175 10s. 6d. [pd	28743 221, 2
(219) ‘Grand to borr	do. Scareham, H. [writes from Hotel, Monte Carlo’] asking ow £50 for a few weeks (!)	☉
☉	(220) do. Scareham, H. would know object, for wh loan is and security offered.	like to asked,
218 246	(221) Ap. 3. Wilkins & Co. vious letter, now before me, undertook to supply one for decling to pay more.	in pre- you £120:
23514 218 228	(222) do. Cheetham & Sharp. written 221—enclosing previo ter—is law on my side?	have us let-     [
(223) G. N. dresse ‘very	Ap. 4. Manager, Goods Statn, R. White Elephant arrived, ad- d to you—send for it at once— savage’.	226

 

 

29225	/90.
217 230	(225) Ap. 4. (F) Jones, Mrs. th but no room for it at present, am ing it to Zoological Gardens.	anks, send-
223	(226) do. Manager, Goods Sta N. R. please deliver, to bearer note, case containg White Ele- addressed to me.	tn, G. of this phant
223 229	(227) do. Director Zool. Garde closing above note to R. W. Ma call for valuable animal, prese Gardens.	ns. (en- nager) nted to
(228) misquo is £18	Ap. 8. Cheetham & Sharp. you te enclosed letter, limit named 0.	222 237
(229) case de Port— quet—	Ap. 9. Director, Zoo. Gardens. livered to us contained 1 doz. consumed at Directors’ Ban- many thanks.	227 230
225 ☉	(230) do. T Jones, Mrs. why doz. of Port a ‘White Elephant’?	call a
(231) joke’.	do. T Jones, Mrs. ‘it was a	☉

 

 

29233	/90.
242	(233) Ap. 10. (Th) Page & Co. Macaulay’s Essays and “Jane (cheap edtn).	orderg Eyre”
(234) 2 or 3	do. Aunt Jemima—invitg for days after the 15th. [	236
(235) recevd & Co.	do. Lon. and West. Bk. have £250, pd to yr Acct fm Parkins Calcutta[en
234 239	(236) do. Aunt Jemima—can possibly come this month, will when able.	not write [
228 240	(237) Ap. 11. Cheetham and turn letter enclosed to you.	Co. re- [×
245	(238) do. Morton, Philip. Co lend me Browning’s ‘Dramati sonæ’ for a day or 2?	uld you s Per-
(239) ing ho ‘136,	Ap. 14. Aunt Jemima, leav- use at end of month: address Royal Avenue, Bath.’ [	236
(240) returng	Ap. 15. Cheetham and Co., letter as reqd, bill 6/6/8. [	237 244

 

 

29242

/90.

(242)
for boo

Ap. 15. (Tu) Page & Co. bill
ks, as ordered, 15/6 [

233
}
247

(243)

do. ¶ do. books

240
248

(244) do. Cheetham and Co. c
derstand the 6/8—what is £6

an un-
for?

(245)
matis

Ap. 17. ¶ Morton, P. ‘Dra-
Personæ’, as asked for.     [retd

238
249

221
250

(246) do. Wilkins and Co. w
bill, 175/10/6, and ch. for do.

ith
[en

243

(247) do. Page and Co. bill,
postal J⁄Σ107258 for 15/- and

15/6,
6 stps.

(248)
was a

Ap. 18. Cheetham and Co. it
‘clerical error’ (!)

244

245

(249) Ap. 19. Morton, P. retu
Browning with many thanks.

rng

(250)
bill.

do. Wilkins and Co. receptd

246

 

 

 

 

I begin each page by putting, at the top left-hand corner, the next entry-number I am going to use, in full (the last 3 digits of each entry-number are enough afterwards); and I put the date of the year, at the top, in the centre.

I begin each entry with the last 3 digits of the entry-number, enclosed in an oval (this is difficult to reproduce in print, so I have put round-parentheses here). Then, for the first entry in each page, I put the day of the month and the day of the week: afterwards, ‘do.’ is enough for the month-day, till it changes: I do not repeat the week-day.

Next, if the entry is not a letter, I put a symbol for ‘parcel’ (see Nos. 243, 245) or ‘telegram’ (see Nos. 230, 231) as the case may be.

Next, the name of the person, underlined (indicated here by italics).

If an entry needs special further attention, I put [  at the end: and, when it has been attended to, I fill in the appropriate symbol, e.g. in No. 218, it showed that the bill had to be paid; in No. 222, that an answer was really needed (the ‘×’ means ‘attended to’); in No. 234, that I owed the old lady a visit; in No. 235, that the item had to be entered in my account book; in No. 236, that I must not forget to write; in No. 239, that the address had to be entered in my address-book; in No. 245, that the book had to be returned.

I give each entry the space of 2 lines, whether it fills them or not, in order to have room for references. And, at the foot of each page I leave 2 or 3 lines blank (often useful afterwards for entering omitted Letters) and miss one or 2 numbers before I begin the next page.

At any odd moments of leisure, I ‘make up’ the entry-book, in various ways, as follows:—

(1) I draw a second line, at the right-hand end of the ‘received’ entries, and at the left-hand end of the ‘sent’ entries. This I usually do pretty well ‘up to date’. In my Register the first line is red, the second blue: here I distinguish them by making the first thin, and the second thick.

(2) Beginning with the last entry, and going backwards, I read over the names till I recognise one as having occurred already: I then link the two entries together, by giving the one, that comes first in chronological order, a ‘foot-reference’ (see Nos. 217, 225). I do not keep this ‘up-to-date’, but leave it till there are 4 or 5 pages to be done. I work back till I come among entries that are all supplied with ‘foot-references’, when I once more glance through the last few pages, to see if there are any entries not yet supplied with head-references: their predecessors may need a special search. If an entry is connected, in subject, with another under a different name, I link them by cross-references, distinguished from the head- and foot-references by being written further from the marginal line (see No. 229). When 2 consecutive entries have the same name, and are both of the same kind (i.e. both ‘received’ or both ‘sent’) I bracket them (see Nos. 242, 243); if of different kinds, I link them with the symbol used for Nos. 219, 220.

(3) Beginning at the earliest entry not yet done with, and going forwards, I cross out every entry that has got a head- and foot-reference, and is done with, by continuing the extra line through it (see Nos. 221, 223, 225). Thus, wherever a break occurs in this extra line, it shows there is some matter still needing attention. I do not keep this anything like ‘up to date’, but leave it till there are 30 or 40 pages to look through at a time. When the first page in the volume is thus completely crossed out, I put a mark at the foot of the page to indicate this; and so with pages 2, 3, &c. Hence, whenever I do this part of the ‘making up’, I need not begin at the beginning of the volume, but only at the earliest page that has not got this mark.

All this looks very complicated, when stated at full length: but you will find it perfectly simple, when you have had a little practice, and will come to regard the ‘making-up’ as a pleasant occupation for a rainy day, or at any time that you feel disinclined for more severe mental work. In the Game of Whist, Hoyle gives us one golden Rule, “When in doubt, win the trick”—I find that Rule admirable for real life: when in doubt what to do, I ‘make-up’ my Letter-Register!

 

THE END.

 

 

Works by Lewis Carroll.

PUBLISHED BY

MACMILLAN & CO., Ltd., LONDON.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. With Forty-two Illustrations by Tenniel. (First published in 1865.) Crown 8vo, cloth, gilt edges, price 6s. net. Ninetieth Thousand.

The same; People’s Edition. (First published in 1887.) Crown 8vo, cloth, price 2s. 6d. net. One hundred and forty-third Thousand.

The same; Illustrated Pocket Classics for the Young. Fcap. 8vo, cloth, with full gilt back and gilt top, 2s. net. Limp leather, with full gilt back and gilt edges, 3s. net.

The same. 8vo, sewed, 6d.; cloth, 1s.

The same; Miniature Edition. Pott 8vo, 1s. net.

The same; Little Folks’ Edition. Square 16mo. With Coloured Illustrations. 1s. net.

Aventures d’Alice au pays des Merveilles. Traduit de l’Anglais par Henry Bue. Ouvrage illustré de 42 Vignettes par John Tenniel. (First published in 1869.) Crown 8vo, cloth, gilt edges, price 6s. net. Second Thousand.

Le Avventure d’Alice nel paese delle Meraviglie. Tradotte dall’ Inglese da T. Pietrocola-Rossetti. Con 42 Vignette di Giovanni Tenniel. (First published in 1872.) Crown 8vo, cloth, gilt edges, price 6s. net.

Alice’s Adventures Under Ground. Being a Facsimile of the original MS. Book, which was afterwards developed into “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.” With Thirty-seven Illustrations by the Author. (Begun, July, 1862; finished, Feb., 1863; first published, in facsimile, in 1886.) Crown 8vo, cloth, gilt edges, price 4s. net. Fourth Thousand.

Through the Looking-Glass; and what Alice found there. With Fifty Illustrations by Tenniel. (First published in 1871.) Crown 8vo, cloth, gilt edges, price 6s. net. Sixty-third Thousand.

The same; People’s Edition. (First published in 1887.) Crown 8vo, cloth, price 2s. 6d. net. Eighty-fourth Thousand.

The same; Illustrated Pocket Classics for the Young. Fcap. 8vo, cloth, with full gilt back and gilt top, 2s. net. Limp leather, with full gilt back and gilt edges, 3s. net.

The same. 8vo, sewed, 6d.; cloth 1s.

The same; Little Folks’ Edition. Square 16mo. With Coloured Illustrations. 1s. 6d. net.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland; and Through the Looking-Glass; People’s Editions. Both Books together in One Volume. (First published in 1887.) Crown 8vo, cloth, price 4s. 6d. net.

The Hunting of the Snark. An Agony in Eight Fits. With Nine Illustrations, and two large gilt designs on cover, by Henry Holiday. (First published in 1876.) Crown 8vo, cloth, gilt edges, price 4s. 6d. net. Twenty-third Thousand.

Rhyme? and Reason? With Sixty-five Illustrations by Arthur B. Frost, and Nine by Henry Holiday. (First published in 1883, being a reprint, with a few additions, of the comic portions of “Phantasmagoria, and other Poems,” published in 1869, and of “The Hunting of the Snark,” published in 1876.) Crown 8vo, cloth, gilt edges, price 6s. net. Eighth Thousand.

Sylvie and Bruno concluded. With Forty-six Illustrations by Harry Furniss. (First published in 1893.) Fifth Thousand. Crown 8vo, cloth, gilt edges, price 7s. 6d. net. People’s Edition, 2s. 6d. net. N.B.—This book contains 411 pages.

The Story of Sylvie and Bruno, In One Volume. With Illustrations by Harry Furniss. Crown 8vo, 3s. 6d. net.

Three Sunsets, and other Poems. With Twelve Illustrations by E. Gertrude Thomson. Fcap. 4to, cloth, gilt edges, price 4s. net.

N.B.—This is a reprint, with a few additions, of the serious portion of “Phantasmagoria, and other Poems,” published in 1869.

 

 

Works by Lewis Carroll.

PUBLISHED BY
CHATTO & WINDUS,
111 St. MARTIN’S LANE, LONDON, W.C.

Price 1s. net, boards; 2s. net, bound in leather.
FEEDING THE MIND.
A lecture delivered in 1884.
With Preface by William H. Draper.

ALWAYS IN STOCK AT
EMBERLIN & SON, OXFORD.
Postage One Penny.

 

ADVICE TO WRITERS.

Buy “THE WONDERLAND CASE FOR POSTAGE-STAMPS,” invented by Lewis Carroll, October 29, 1888, size 4 inches by 3, containing 12 separate pockets for stamps of different values, 2 Coloured Pictorial Surprises taken from Alice in Wonderland, and 8 or 9 Wise Words about Letter-Writing. It is published by Messrs. Emberlin & Son, 4 Magdalen Street, Oxford. Price 1s.

N.B.—If ordered by Post, an additional payment will be required, to cover cost of postage, as follows:—

One, two, three, or four copies, 1d. Five to fourteen do., 3d. Each subsequent fourteen or fraction thereof, 1d.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ***

Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will be renamed.

Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project Gutenberg™ electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG™ concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you charge for an eBook, except by following the terms of the trademark license, including paying royalties for use of the Project Gutenberg trademark. If you do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the trademark license is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and research. Project Gutenberg eBooks may be modified and printed and given away—you may do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks not protected by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the trademark license, especially commercial redistribution.

START: FULL LICENSE