harold-noice-01-02-15-006

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found on the island, but named me as one of the parties possessing
a claim to use such material and bound me to give the Newspaper
Alliance the first opportunity of purchasing further stories
based on such material. This contract and telegrams relating
to it clearly prove Mr. Taylor's good faith with respect to his
agreement with me. If Mr. H. G. Wells had been sent to
Wrangel Island instead of me the Alliance would have probably
offered him considerably more than $3,000 for 20,000 words, because
Mr. Wells has written ten books to my one. On the other hand,
if Captain Bernard had been sent to Wrangel the Alliance would
probably have offered him considerably less than $3,000 because
the Captain has had no literary experience. Mr. Stefansson's
claim that because I had been sent to Wrangel to do certain
definite work for the company I was morally bound to turn over
to the company any money I might make through my ability as a
writer is absurd. It would have been equally absurd if the
American Museum who sent Mr. Stefansson north toccollect ethnologi-
cal specimens had demanded that he give them the money he received
from the sale of articles based on his experiences during the
expedition..

Upon my return to Nome I sent out detailed informa-
tion concerning the tragedy, clearly showing that all the men
of the party had perished but that the tragedy was not due to
the inherent inhospitality of Wrangel Island, either in severity
of climate or lack of game resources, and that I had, therefore,