ABSTRACT
on June 2, 1880, Hardy was forty years old. In spite of some recent set-backs and disappointments, he had many reasons for feeling encouraged. The future certainly had bright spots. He had just signed a contract with Harper & Brothers for a new novel, not a word of which had as yet been written, but one for which they were willing to pay $6,500—one hundred pounds sterling when he delivered the first instalment, and twelve hundred pounds on the delivery of the completed work. When the New York publishers opened negotiations with Hardy regarding this new serialization, Henry M. Alden (the editor of Harper's Magazine) explained that they proposed to start a European edition of the magazine in December 1880 and they would like to have Hardy's manuscript in time for the first number. They proposed to run his story both in London and in New York, and would afterwards publish it as a book in New York, allowing Hardy to make his own arrangements for book publication in London. This was easily the most princely pay Hardy had ever been offered for a product of his pen; he accordingly promptly accepted the Harper offer and began at once to make plans for the new serial-to-be.
