SIR,--Now that the dust from the rubbish basket that was
emptied over Dr. Leavis's head last week has had time to settle, perhaps a few facts would help to sweeten the air.
I. Mr. Gerhardi made great play with the phrase 'defunct foolishest Scrutiny' and described Dr. Leavis's references to it as 'bemused drivelling.' It might interest Mr. Gerhardi, and perhaps some of your other contributors, to know that the Cam- bridge University Press is currently engaged in re- printing Scrutiny, in toto.
2. Mr. Deol claimed that Dr. Leavis's reputation as a critic was a myth created by undergraduates, which had reached us from Cambridge 'of late.' If so, there must be an unbelievable consistency in undergraduate opinion, for some twelve generations of undergraduates have attended Cambridge since Dr. Leavis's lectures were drawing full houses in the middle Twenties. In point of fact, Dr. Leavis's reputation as a critic was firmly established with the publication of New Bearings in English Poetry in 1932, which can hardly be describe as 'of late.'
3. Over the intervening thirty years he has pub- lished six other books, all of which are in print, sell steadily and increasingly and arc reprinted regularly. Recently The Common Pursuit, first pub- lished ten years ago, was issued in Penguin's new
'Peregrine' Series of higher-priced paperbacks. It sold over 10,000 copies at 7s. 6d. in the first six weeks. So what is all this about envying another writer's success?
4. As for the heinousness of attempting 'to assassinate another writer's reputation,' this is pre- cisely what Dr. Leavis's opponents (including some of your last week's contributors) have been at- tempting to do to his reputation as a critic for as long as I can remember. Almost any literary lun- cheon, poetry prize-giving, public lecture or critical' review has been seized upon by them as an oppor- tunity for 'having a go at Leavis.' I should know, for over the years I've had to read or listen to countless such attacks. Many of them have been every bit as uncompromisingly dismissive as anything in the Richmond Lecture.
IAN PARSONS
Chatto and Windus Ltd..
40 William !V Street, WC2
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