German jokes
Sir: My thanks to the clairvoyant Paul Ableman for affirming that I did 'a sparkling job' on translating Arno Schmidt's Gelehrtenrepublik ('German jokes'' 14 July), A 'fluent, vernacular AngloAmerican prose' is precisely what 1 aimed for a difficult task considering some of the impenetrable densities of the original. This did indeed bristle, as Ableman infers, with 'a matted undergrowth of donnish jest and immicky notation', which the Publisher insisted must be transposed – nay, reproduced – pedantic footnote for footnote and cute, meretricious punctuation point for punctuation point.
However, the confidence implied by your reviewer's conclusion that 'there's got to be a funnier German novel than this awaiting (my) talents m999-119111 – ???££££££ UV! (this last device being Paul Ableman's witty echo of Herr Schmidt's punctuative excesses) – i.e. that I was healthily rewarded for my labours, is sadly misplaced. Marion Boyars's contract promised the munificent advance of £125 against royalties of 24 per cent (14 per cent paperback). It also promised that my name would be 'displayed in any advertising concerning this work'. The only advertisement I've seen, in the Guardian, rejoyces in the Egghead Republic title I coined for this English edition: but neglects to attribute it to me.
When I pointed out her omission to the publisher, and asked for the instalment of my advance due on publication, she replied: 'At this particular moment my own feeling is that you are no longer entitled to any further (!) benefits under the contract' (my exclamation mark), and later 'I consider our contract null and void'. Some of the reasons, non-reasons, intrigues and real(if somewhat literary) tragi-comedy that underlie all this will no doubt be emerging, little by little. Much of the complete saga could well prove of more enduring interest than either the original Gelehrtenrepublik or the heavily adulterated re-editing of my version Mrs Boyars saw fit to rush into print. And this without letting me check the final proofs, though the responsibility for such checking was another contractual obligation she'd signed over to me at the outset.
Meanwhile it seems public-spirited to display, and share with your readers, the kind of charming support on offer from one of Britain's less impoverished publishers to her galley-slaves.
Michael Horovitz Piedmont, Bisley, Stroud, Gloucestershire
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