Follies and mishaps of 1967
Sir: Mr Livesey (29 December) seems to assume that the one grant of £2,000 we have so far received —specifically to maintain a scale of fees that at best •is still about a third of what it should be— allows us to live off the fat of the land. In fact, in relation to overall costs, the Arts Council grant we get is by far the lowest given to any magazine. It represents one fortieth of what it has cost to keep the magazine going over the last seven years.
Does this seem over-generous to Mr Livesey? Would he rather, as in Eastern Europe and in the USSR, the state paid for everything (and decided everything) or that they did nothing at all and risked literary magazines of more than parochial signific- ance ceasing to exist? It is hard to tell from his article. But surely the most realistic principle is for' the Arts Council, in this instance, to relate its grant to the scope of the enterprise, the quality of con- tents and production, the frequency of publication?
Alan Ross London Magazine, 30 Thurloe Place, London SW7
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