To Charles Scribner’s Sons
C/o Brown Shipley & Co 123, Pall Mall, London
Rome. December 8, 1928
Dear Sirs,
I hope you won’t think it impertinent if I consult you about a private matter that is puzzling me a little. Most of my modest property is in a trust which provides for the disposal of it in the event of my death; but there are some odds and ends which (having reached the age of 65) I ought perhaps to dispose of by will: and among these the only American item is such author’s rights as I may have in consequence of contracts with you. Now, the matter is complicated by the fact that I am (as I have always been) a Spanish subject; and it would seem proper that my will should be Spanish, and registered in Spain, especially as I have a small house there, inherited from my father. Experience, in the case of some members of my family deceased, has shown me how much trouble foreign wills can give: and now I come to the question which I wish to submit to you. What is the simplest way in which I can bequeath my author’s rights? The person to whom I wish to leave them is Mr Daniel MacGhie Cory, whose father lives at 133 East 73rd St. New York, but who for some years has lived himself in Europe, and who is to be my literary executor. Need I make an American will for this purpose, or would the Spanish will do just as well? Forgive me for troubling you with this matter, and believe me Very truly yours
G Santayana
From The Letters of George Santayana: Book Six, 1937-1940. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2004.
Location of manuscript: Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Libraries, Princeton NJ