This is to acknoledge receipt of your letter of
November third. I feel very unhappy about the contents of
your letter, however, I realize that you are undoubtedly not
acquainted with the history of the Hinrichsens; otherwise,
I am sure especially you wouldn't have written what you wrote.

I agree with you that Clayton F. Summy Company abused
a right which they did not possess. This is not the first
time that they did it, however, there is nothing you or I can
do in this matter. In approximately two weeks I will re-
ceive all the property Clayton F. Summy had from Peters and
from that day on I will have no relation whatsoever with
Clayton F. Summy and the president, John F. Sengstach.

I have employed one of the best-known copyright
lawyers in Washington to check up on all copyright infringe-
ments with the Peters catalog received during the past 10
years here in the United States. I will especially check up
on the copyright question of your Opus 16 and I will keep
you posted.

I have in my posession here in New York one com-
plete performance material of your work. As soon as you
send me your score with the final revision, I will have made
these changes in the material I have and will print it again,
and will have this final version then copyrighted so that
neither you as the composer or I as the publisher will have
any further complications in collecting rental and perfor-
mance fees. For this purpose I do not need transparent paper
from Vienna. I assure you that as soon as you send me your
last revision of Opus 16 with all changes entered in your
score and in the parts, I will have done the job right here
in America and in the same way as composer and publisher was
proud to publish your work in 1912, composer and publisher
will be again proud of the edition I will publish.

Therefore, I ask you to make a new revision, a third
version for which I can obtain a copyright and nobody will then
be able to “steal it from us“.

Now I come to the part of your letter to which I
object very strongly. Inasmuch as my family was kept as hos-
tage by the Hitler regime, it was impossible to send dubli-
cates of scores and sets to the American representative.
This was also the reason why I was unable to take care of
Peters Edition before the war. Inasmuch as I was in the United
States Army from 1942 to 1945, I definitely had other worries
then unethical publishers in the United States who were
avoiding paying fees to editiors and to composers by stealing
somebody else's property. I hope this explanation is
entirely satisfactory to you. If not, please feel free to
continue this very unhappy correspondence which to me seems
to be very undignified in connection with the relationship
Arnold Schoenberg had with Henri Hinrichsen.