Book

[ara baliozian]

THE LITERARY RACKET

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Most writers make more money

after they are dead and buried.

Even when they are alive, however,

most writers make less money

than their publishers, printers, and booksellers.

On a book that sells for $10.00, for instance,

a bookseller makes $4.00,

a writer $1.00 (10% of which goes to his agent)

and the balance of $5.00 goes

to the publisher, editor, designer, printer and

advertiser – assuming of course everyone involved

behaves honestly.

But as an old and very angry Canadian writer

once warned me, a publisher can cheat a writer 42 different ways.

Since most of my publishers are Armenian

I suspect I have been screwed 84 ways.

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FORGOTTEN MASTERPIECES

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Even non-readers have heard of Homer and Shakespeare.

But how many avid readers have ever heard of

Lesley Blanch and Joachim Maass? --

two fascinating writers and authors

of unforgettable masterpieces –

THE SABRES OF PARADISE (Blanch) and

THE GOUFFE CASE (Maass).

What a wonderful book one could write

on neglected and sometimes even forgotten masterpieces!

To mention some that come readily to mind:

INTO THE WHIRLWING by Natalya Ginzburg,

THE BOND by Jacques Borel,

THE NATURAL HISTORY OF

NEW YORK CITY by Joseph Wood Krutch,

CONVERSATIONS WITH ANATOLE FRANCE

by Jean-Jacques Brousson.

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MANN AND NABOKOV

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At one time or another Nabokov has criticized,

even mocked, many major writers,

among them Tolstoy and Dostoevsky ("Tolstoevsky"),

as well as Faulkner and Mann ("Faulknermann").

And yet, Nabokov shared with Mann

a great many things in common.

They both wrote major novels about paedophilia

(LOLITA / DEATH IN VENICE),

and incest (ADA / THE HOLY SINNER).

They were both driven into exile to America

by two tyrants (Lenin / Hitler).

They both had a favorite writer

about whom they wrote at considerable length

(Pushkin / Goethe). They both left America

and spent their final years in Europe.

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VICIOUS?

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A gentle reader once described me as "vicious."

If true, this must be the first time

in the history of the animal kingdom

that a member of a vegetarian species

has been vicious to predatory carnivores ten times his size.

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ENEMY ACTION

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During the Clinton administration

and in a speech delivered in the White House

to an Armenian delegation

there was a paragraph that said:

"In the words of the great Armenian poet Puzant Granian…"

-- there followed a passage from MY LAND, MY PEOPLE

which I had co-translated with the author in 1977.

But whereas the ARF papers printed the President’s speech

in its entirety, the ADL papers deleted any reference to Granian

(who is a member of the ARF) and his book.

On another occasion,

when I published an interview with Puzant Granian,

both Granian and I were torn to shreds

by an ADL intellectual (if you will forgive the oxymoron).

When Granian replied with a letter to the editor,

his reply was drastically edited and abridged by the non-partisan editor

whose salary was paid by an ADL-controlled fundation.

In 1980 I was commission by this same foundation

to edit an anthology titled ARMENIA OBSERVED,

in which I included a short chapter

from Granian’s MY LAND, MY PEOPLE.

This chapter was deleted without notice.

There is a military maxim that says:

"If something goes wrong once, it is an accident;

if twice, it is a coincidence;

if three times, it is enemy action."

It is to be noted that both Granian’s book

and my interview were devoid of any ideological content.

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UNPAID BILLS

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During the last few months

I have been receiving weekly subscription renewal notices

from one of our ADL publications.

I have ignored all forty or fifty of them

but they keep coming with astonishing regularity.

For twenty years I was a regular contributor to this paper

and I was ignored – not even a Christmas card

or a thank-you note.

Oscar Wilde is right:

the only way to be remembered by the commercial classes

is by not paying your bills.