Most valued friend,
I am most grateful to you for visiting me in Bayreuth, although I am uncertain as to whether the latest turn of events in the matter of our Patrons’ certificates meets with your wishes or not. In the mean time I still do not know either whether anything will come of the so-called “School”, since the invitation asking people to register was seriously delayed, and in any case fell at a bad time of the year, while the claims for support can really only be met by those who are wanting to be appointed. We shall simply have to wait and see. - In the mean time, however, I do not want to give up the “Bayreuther Blätter”, and for this reason hope that we shall remain in contact for our mutual benefit. - There have already been enquiries about taking over the “publishing house”. However, just as I intend presenting my festival only to a “Society” from now on, so I intend this journal to be available solely to that “Society”. The (minimal - ) costs will be paid for by contributions from the Society, and the “Blätter” will therefore also belong to the Society, whose members will perhaps have to pay only a small extra charge in order to subscribe to it. Once the courses of study begin, the journal will carry reports on them and on their character, so as to educate our readers, and perhaps also include other Society news, as far as this is of a purely artistic nature. Even if the School cannot be opened until a later date, the journal should publish introductory articles & essays from the 1st of January ’78 onwards, albeit in a smaller quantity. Accordingly, I am thinking of beginning in the New Year, in association with Wolzogen, Porges & Pohl, etc., and producing 1 sheet (octavo) every 2 weeks or so. — I should like you to take over the printing, production and distribution of the journal, since it seems to me that you could very easily send it out as a supplement to your M. Wochenblatt, excepting only those (fully subscribed) members of the Society who are not to receive your Wochenblatt. I should very much like to think of your becoming involved in this enterprise - which from a publishing point of view is not in the least speculative - more especially because of our excellent mutual understanding and devotion to the cause; in this way we shall also best succeed in avoiding any competition with your own journal, but, on the contrary, enhance its reputation still further. There will of course be absolutely no question of including any correspondence, criticism, reviews, advertisements, etc., in the Bayreuther Blätter, and if ever we need anything of that kind, I shall always use your own columns. But my enterprise shall always remain an independent undertaking which, financially, belongs to the Society alone.
Please let me know your views on the matter. (I may mention merely in passing that even though you will derive as little profit — i.e. financially speaking - from the Bayreuther Blätter as each of its contributors, you will also have as few expenses as they do, since their expenses in moving to Bayreuth are all to be reimbursed.)
I hope you will understand me, and believe me when I say that it pleases me to recall our good and steadfast relations.
With the most sincere good wishes, I am
Your obedient servant
Richard Wagner
Source: Selected Letters of Richard Wagner, trans. and ed. Stewart Spencer and Barry Millington (W. W. Norton & Company, 1988), No. 456