3 JANUARY 1958, Page 30

STEPHEN LEACOCK

SIR,—Mr. Kingsley Amis in his review of The Bodley Head Leacock in your issue of December 6 says that it would have been fairer to Leacock's memory if the text of this volume had been confined to straight re- prints of Literary Lapses and Nonsense Novels. Of course no two people well acquainted with an author's work would ever make identical selections from it. All Mr. J. B. Priestley claims, in his introduction, is that the volume contains 'a whale of a lot of good Leacock.'

At the same time your readers may like to know that Literary Lapses and Nonsense Novels are both still in print.—Yours faithfully,

J. B. BLACKLEY

The Bodley Head, 10 Earlham Street, WC2