a joint effort

    Kim's post about Shawn & Maxwell brings up the matter
    of the editor's contribution. I wonder is this a distinctively
    American phenomenon? One thinks immediately of Maxwell
    Perkins's work with Wolfe (& even, in a less directive way,
    with Hem & Scott Fitzgerald.)

    But I can't recall any comparably influential figures in British
    publishing - which doesn't mean there aren't any. In my own
    limited experience, all my publishers ever seemed to do was
    arrange some posh lunches & parties, correct a 'Ming horse'
    to a 'Tang' & - to my subsequent fury - persuade me to drop
    a definite article from the title of my first book. I can't think
    of any occasion when they wanted to fiddle with my sacred texts.

    I often wished - ungratefully & quite unjustifiably - they'd been
    a little more gung-ho in peddling me to the media but we were
    all much more gentlemanly in those days.

    Maybe if they'd been a little less reticent with their suggestions,
    this listserv would bear another name?
    
    (It will one day, of course.)

    Scottie B.

-
* Unsubscribing? Mail majordomo@roughdraft.org with the message
* UNSUBSCRIBE BANANAFISH
Received on Fri Jan 31 03:55:58 2003