Spectator's Notebook
NEw complications continually arise in the contused row about the English translations of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, the Soviet labour camp novel. Manifesto follows manifesto, coups and projected coups resound —the latest being the de-authorisation by the Russians of the 'authorised' version published by Dutton in New York (who had added a non- party-line preface). The trouble started when Dutton signed a contract with the Russians (as did Gollancz in this country) to bring out the official translation, by Ralph Parker, which had already appeared in a Moscow English-language periodical. For at the same time Praeger were arranging for a fresh translation by those two British cognoscenti of Russian literature, Max Hayward and Ronald Hingley. Since the Rus- sians are not signatories of the Berne Conven- tion, and themselves freely pirate British and American books, the Dutton-Gollancz contracts have no legal validity in the. US or here. Some Western publishers seek these contracts, on the view that this is the best way to soften the Russians up into paying royalties to the West. Others, like Praeger. believe that the most effec- tive sanction is to pirate right back at them. Friends of mine with experience in publishing on the whole favour the former; friends with experience of the Russians, the latter.
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