Book marks
There have been some red faces at Weidenfeld and Nicolson this spring — a testament not to the sunny climes of Clapham Junction, but to a mixture of unconcealed rage and embarrassment. Last year the firm made its gesture to the Thomas Hardy vogue by embarking on an illustrated volume of critical essays under the editorship of Margaret Drabble. Willing contributions by such notables as Geoffrey Grigson, A. L. Rowse and Lord David Cecil gave Weidenfeld every reason to believe that they had a winner on their hands, and the text of The Genius of Thomas Hardy proceeded merrily to the printers and into type. Publication was scheduled for June 1975.
Unfortunately the Weidenfeld editors had overlooked one thing. The book contained several extracts from Hardy's own works, which remain in copyright until 1978. When eventually it dawned on the publishers that it might be proper to seek copyright clearance they received something of a shock. The copyright resided with Hardy's principal publishers Macmillan who, by one of those perennial publishing coincidences, had themselves spent two years preparing a celebratory Hardy volume for publication this October.
With their customary civility, Macmillan informed Weidenfeld that they would be perfectly happy to grant permission for use of the relevant passages. They would even waive the £250 worth of copyright fees. But they would not do either of these things until 1976, or in other words until after the appearance of Timothy O'Sullivan's Thomas Hardy: A Pictorial Biography (Macr'nillan). Weidenfeld are reported to be fuming, and will no doubt continue to fume until February 1976, when The Genius of Thomas Hardy will now be published.
Well, near enough
Speaking of literary valediction, I must award full marks to publisher Paul Elek for keeping his cool. Last month his firm published The Novels of G. K. Chesterton — "on the 101st anniversary of G. K. Chesterton's birth".
Wanting to spit
With a nicely calculated sense of the macabre, Cassell Collier Macmillan have elected to hold their summer sales conference at Selwyn College, hard by the haunt of the Cambridge rapist. Censorship laws prevent me from printing the comments of CCM's shorter salesmen when they discovered they would have to take a saliva test.
Bob's your uncle
.Exhibitors at this year's Frankfurt Book Fair will doubtless do a double-take if they decide to patronise the city's brand-new Sheraton Hotel. On entering the imposing edifice they will discover not merely a Maxwell Bar, but also a Maxwell Restaurant in which they can partake of Maxwell Tart. Can this be yet another ploy by publisher-politico Robert Maxwell to diversify his business interests? He was, after all, a one-time pillar of the House of Commons catering committee.
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