Manhattan Rare Book Company

"I've just taken on a novel about rabbits, one of them with extra-sensory perception. Do you think I'm mad?"
-Rex Collings, publisher of Watership Down

" "If there is no place for Watership Down in children's bookshops, then children's literature is dead.” "
-from an early review of Watership Down in The Economist

LETTER SIGNED BY RICHARD ADAMS TO HIS PUBLISHER REX COLLINGS PROPOSING POSSIBLE TITLES FOR WATERSHIP DOWN AND DISCUSSING THE FAMOUS MAP.

Written over two years before the 1972 publication of Watership Down, the letter reveals the collaborative relationship between Adams and Collings. Adams, clearly eager to collaborate with a publisher to whom he feels indebted, is touchingly self-effacing in the letter, declaring that Collings can ”do better” with the title.

Watership Down: Origin and Publication
Watership Down was born on a long car ride, where Adams weaved an increasingly complex narrative about rabbits to his eager daughters, who later insisted that he write down the tale. Initially rejected by numerous publishers, Adams’ manuscript finally reached Rex Collings, a minor one-man publisher. Collings understandably had trepidations about publishing violent lapine literature, which most publishers rejected for being too scary for children. He even asked his associate: "I've just taken on a novel about rabbits, one of them with extra-sensory perception. Do you think I'm mad?" Furthermore, in working with Adams, Collings risked collaborating with an unpublished writer. Of course, Collings took a brilliant chance, and unlike many other great novels, Watership Down was quickly recognized, winning the Carnegie Medal for the year’s best children’s book by a British subject.

The Title Watership Down
Adams’ original title “Hazel and Fiver,” didn’t quite say “this book will sell 50 million copies” to publisher Rex Collings, who encouraged Adams to explore other titular options. While Adams credits Collings with the title Watership Down, the letter here proves otherwise, as Adams himself willingly abandoned his original title and presented Watership Down as an option. Adams and Collings, in collaboratively choosing the title, recognized that while Hazel and Fiver are important, as Adams original title prioritized, the sanctity of place is more central to this story. Like Manderley or Hogwarts or the Shire (that’s Rebecca, Harry Potter, and The Lord of the Rings respectively), Watership Down represents a sacred place, a Promise Land that the characters are fighting for.

The Map
In the letter, Adams alludes to the famous map in Watership Down, a map that unlike the title, is published exactly as Adams describes–”a pull-out black-and-white map at two inches to the mile.”

The letter reads:

Dear Rex,

“Hazel and Fiver”

A few suggestions for a better title. It’s rather a difficult job. Let me know if you care for one – or if you can do better. You probably can.
I’m ready to talk to a cartographer. How about a pull-out black-and-white map at two inches to the mile?
Yours ever,

[signed] Richard
R.G. Adams
—-------------------
On the enclosed page, Adams offers a list of “Possible Titles Instead of ‘Hazel and Fiver’”
The Summer Wanderers.
The Prince with a Thousand Enemies.
Watership Down.
The Wildness and the Wet.
The Trembling of the Grass
The Delicate Turf.
Fiver’s Blood.
The Miles of Turf.

Typed letter signed with autograph corrections. London: 8 October, 1970. Two pages. Cover page (signed "Richard"). Size: 5.75x8.25in; 149x210 mm). Leaf with title suggestions. Size: 8.25x11.3/4 in; 210x299 mm. Staple holes in top left margin; usual folds; otherwise fine.

Check Availability:
P: 212.326.8907
E: info@manhattanrarebooks.com