A memoiristic volume records journeys, financial strains, and editorial negotiations surrounding the papers of a prominent political exile. The narrator describes meetings with lenders and intermediaries, a detailed contract with a publishing firm to issue a planned multi-volume edition, and portraits of the publishers, secretaries, and acquaintances involved. Interwoven are vivid anecdotes about everyday transactions, assessments of the exile's moral sense of duty and working habits, and reflections on the difficulty of producing an extensive, annotated historical publication at an advanced age.