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"an article on the development, contents and achievements of [PsA]": Sigmund Freud's contribution to the Encyclopaedia Britannica
Autograph draft letter signed ("Freud").
4to. 1¼ pages. On headed paper.
A remarkable, hitherto unpublished letter draft, apparently to the British journalist James Louis Garvin ("Dear Sir"), London editor of the 13th edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, in which he offers to contribute an article on psychoanalysis: "You remember in your last letter of Sept 17th you took into account my remark that the E.B. of 1911 contained no mention of [PsA] and agreed to my intention to report on its condition before that term. As the year 1911 makes no epoch in the history of [PsA] I could not but neglect that artificial border-line and send you an article on the development, contents and achievements of [PsA] from the very beginning. So I am uncertain whether it will fit in with what you require. It is extremely condensed, I found it impossible to give an intellig[i]ble account of the intricate subject in a more shortened frame. If - from any motive - you cannot accept it let me suggest, you should apply for another article to my pupil Dr Ernest Jones in London, 81 Harley St., the foremost among English analysts. If you adhere to my composition please let it be translated by Mr James Strachey … (brother to the famous historian Lytton Str.), one of my English translators. [PsA] has created a lot of special German terms, whose English equivalents have been fixed by English analysts. It would be a pity if the E. Br. did not use the same technical denominations [...]".
Freud spoke highly of J. L. Garvin (1868-1947) in a September 1924 letter to Franklin Hooper, the Britannica's U.S. editor, describing in very similar terms the essay on psychoanalysis that Freud had contributed to Hooper's recently published collection "These Eventful Years": "My complete admiration goes to the introductory essay by Garvin [...] I am very proud that you have granted psychoanalysis a chapter to itself. I hope that the future will justify your assessment. If my essay has turned out longer than you wished it to be, my excuse is that a shorter description of the difficult topic would have offered nothing comprehensible to the reader" (Letters of Sigmund Freud 1873-1939, vol. 51 [1961], 354). Garvin was keen to maintain the encyclopedia's reputation for scholarship and saw the publication as an opportunity to restore international unity through intellectual cooperation, whilst in turn making it more cosmopolitan and accessible. With that in mind he commissioned the best possible authority on each subject, as shown here. Other illustrious contributors to the edition included Marie Curie writing on Radium, Albert Einstein on Space-Time, Henry Ford on Mass Production, Suzanne Lenglen on Lawn Tennis, Andrew Mellon on Finance, Marconi on Wireless, Nansen on Polar Exploration, and Leo Trotsky on Lenin.
