[Notification from The Overland Monthly and Out West Magazine, San Francisco, on editorial letterhead. Found among the Blane/Elspeth hatbox accession (1921-BE-044) at the Hume Polytechnic Library, tucked between the musical score pages and the hair ribbon. Not catalogued separately; noted in a pencilled amendment by E. Cargill, Librarian, March 1923.]
THE OVERLAND MONTHLY AND OUT WEST MAGAZINE\ Montgomery Street, San Francisco, California
17 April, 1903.
Edmund Caldwell Hume, Esq.\ Hume House, Vanderlin Row\ Port Hume, New York.
Dear Mr. Hume,
It is our duty to inform you, as the family representative listed in Mr. August C. Hume's correspondence file at this office, that the contributor who published verse in this magazine under the name M. Varrick was, as we learned upon inquiry after his death, your brother.
Mr. Hume submitted his first poem to us in the autumn of 1897, under a covering letter signed only "M. Varrick, c/o general delivery, Post Office, Geary Street." He contributed twelve poems in total between 1897 and 1902, the last appearing in our November issue. He requested, in his original submission, that no correspondence be forwarded to any family address, and that the pen name should stand on all copyright registrations for the term of the arrangement. We honored this request absolutely until the present necessity.
The identity of M. Varrick was not known to us until we made inquiry at the Geary Street address following a report of his death on the 4th of April. A neighbor of the late Mr. Hume confirmed it.
We write to advise you that copyright in the twelve poems passes to his estate. If you wish, we can provide a bound set of the relevant issues. We ask only that you advise us of your instruction regarding the pen name, should any reprint question arise.
We are sorry for your loss. M. Varrick was a feeling writer, and his work—spare, without ornament, concerned almost entirely with water and distance—was valued by our readers more than our circulation numbers will reflect.
Yours faithfully,\ [signed] W. H. Dodd\ Literary Editor, The Overland Monthly
[Cargill's pencil amendment, added to the accession card 7 March 1923:]\ "One additional item found loose in accession 1921-BE-044 upon second examination. Publisher's letter, San Francisco, 1903. Subject: pen name of August C. Hume. Retained with the accession. —E.C."