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TO MAX REINHARDT

C.6 Albany, | London, W.1. [19 September 1964]

Dear Max,

A lunch yesterday with my friend, the Indian novelist R. K. Narayan plus this morning the appearance of one of his books The Dark Room published by Macmillan in 1938 in a Rare Book catalogue at the price of three guineas, has determined me to bring up his case to you.

He is at present under contract to Heinemann who published his last novel, which is still in print having sold between four and five thousand copies, The Man-Eater of Malgudi. They are also bringing out a book of his on Indian mythology, which hasn’t the same interest as his novels, at the beginning of next year. He’s about half way through a new novel, which he described to me and which sounds up to his best form, and this is contracted to Heinemann. Then his contract lapses.

I brought him to Heinemann myself when Frere was in charge and introduced him to Frere who has a high opinion of his work. He has become in his own way a minor classic already in England since Hamish Hamilton published his first book right back in the depression years. From Hamish Hamilton he went to Nelson and I wrote an introduction to his second novel The Bachelor of Arts. When I went to Eyre & Spottiswoode I took back the rights in his old books and reprinted them, except for this one published by Macmillan that I’ve just mentioned. I also published several new books including a very fine collection of short stories, humorous and sad, called An Astrologer’s Day. All the books did reasonably well, but in those days there was a paper shortage and I saw to it that he had a proper allotment.

When I left Eyre & Spottiswoode, like all my favourite authors except Mauriac, he was cancelled out by Douglas Jerrold and then went to Methuen who had an extremely good press for The Guide (which has been filmed) but did very little with him, so that I was glad to transfer him under Frere’s banner. David Higham has done nothing whatever about paperback rights and here I feel a great deal could be done by persuading one of the paperback firms to produce three of his best novels simultaneously. A great range of quotation could be used on the jackets from E.M. Forster to myself!

[…]


Date: 2015-02-03; view: 687


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