TO A. S. FRERE,

Short of capital, William Heinemann Ltd was bought by Thomas Tilling Ltd, of which Frere’s friend Lionel Fraser, himself a former chairman of

Heinemann, was the head. After seventeen years as chairman, Frere was promoted to president and so made irrelevant to the daily operations of the firm.

C.6 Albany, | London, W.1. | 16th October, 1962

Dear Frere,

I want to write to you to explain why I have, after a great deal of thought, come to a decision to leave Heinemann’s. You have been my publisher for more than thirty years and my greatest friend for close on twenty years, and I owe you an explanation.

From the time the war ended until recently I have always had the sense that I was published by a friend who took a personal interest in my work. It is to you I owe the publication of my uniform edition; with each new book we have together discussed the problems of production and publication, and it isn’t easy, therefore, for me to abandon all the past and to go with future books into an unfamiliar region. I want you to know the circumstances which arose last year and determined my decision.

An arrangement was discussed with Heinemann’s and accepted in principle one Sunday afternoon in I forget what month by your Chairman Lionel Fraser that I and Max Reinhardt³⁷should join the board of William Heinemann as part of a general reorganization which would have included The Bodley Head. On the Monday I received from Lionel Fraser a copy of the announcement he proposed to give to the Press and I approved it. On Tuesday I was informed that my presence on the board was considered undesirable by other members of the Heinemann group. This personal rebuff could have been laughed easily off if I had not become more and more aware of the fact that I no longer had any personal contact with anyone in the firm and that – to speak frankly – I could no longer depend on you to look after my work; from my agent and the rumours circulating in the publishing world I had learned that you were no longer in a position to do so.

I was therefore left as an author without any personal contact with the firm of Heinemann, apart from Alan Hill on the educational side. I have never disguised from you my lack of confidence in your managing director (on two occasions during my period at Heinemann’s I very nearly left the firm because of the type of publicity he thought my books required). I have not even met Mr. Charles Pick, although he telephoned me yesterday morning just at the moment when I am leaving for the continent to suggest a meeting.³⁸

Please believe me when I say that I am quite certain no responsibility whatever attaches to you – I have become only too aware of how powerless in the whole matter is the President of the company. Under these circumstances what was I to do? Leave myself in the hands of strangers who showed so little interest in my books? I have had many years’ experience of publishing and I am a director of The Bodley Head and a personal friend of Max Reinhardt, so the decision to be taken seemed an obvious one. In spite of that after thirty-two years with Heinemann it has taken me many months to make up my mind, but a publishing firm to an author means a personal contact, a personal sense of confidence reciprocated, and this I can no longer find in a company of whom the directors are nearly all unknown to me. I am sure you will understand my motives and I am sure too that it won’t interfere with the very great personal friendship we have for each other.

Yours affectionately,
Graham

After several more years of awkward relations with Heinemann, Graham finally moved to The Bodley Head, but the firms collaborated on the collected edition of his works. Frere himself left Heinemann and became an adviser to The Bodley Head (ODNB).

Date: 2015-02-03; view: 696