Abstract

R L 77, R L 387, Houghton Library. OCPR, Southern Illinois University’s Morris Library. CLFP, Columbia University’s Butler Library. This chapter chronicles the turbulent dialogue among Peirce, Open Court editor Paul Carus, and intermediary Francis C. Russell, documenting Peirce’s unyielding efforts to publish his revolutionary work on existential graphs and the logic of relatives. Spanning 1896–1919, the letters reveal battles against editorial constraints, financial desperation, and miscommunication. Carus vacillates between admiration for Peirce’s “brilliant contributions” and frustration with their technical density; Russell mediates, championing Peirce’s genius but failing to reconcile editorial and intellectual visions. Peirce defends his graphical systems as “the greatest illuminator of logic” (1908), whereas Carus resists notations deemed unmanageable for readers and publishers alike, demanding generally accessible content. The correspondence exposes the harsh economics of academic publishing: Peirce laments earning “50 cents a day” for years of labor, while the pressing efforts to compile his Illustrations of the Logic of Science flounder. A coda of posthumous exchange underscores the tragic dispersal of Peirce’s literary remains—Carus calls the papers “safe but idle”—symbolising the defenselessness of “the founder of pragmatism in its original form, himself not pragmatic at all” (J. M. Baldwin).