From: Michael Andre-Driussi <mantis@siriusfiction.com>
Subject: Re: (urth) Re: Digest urth.v031.n025
Date: Fri, 4 Jan 2002 20:25:24 -0800

alga wrote:
>This excuse is pretty hard to swallow, though I have no doubt that Wolfe
>employed it. We're talking about quotations from Thoreau(!), Conrad Aiken,
>Robert Howard, Tolkien and Lewis. Perhaps it is true that the estates of the
>last two are difficult to deal with, but I would think "fair use" plus the
>fact that one quote is from a letter to the author would carry the
>day--these are not extensive quotes. I don't know about the publisher, but
>Karen Haber is not naive or a nitwit about publishing. There indeed seems be
>some crankiness at work, but not necessarily from the publisher, no matter
>what Wolfe may have told you.

My recollection of the J.D. Salinger case was precisely that: the use of
letters from Salinger to the author, to be used in a brand new book about
Salinger.  I could be wrong (perhaps the main point in that case was the
use of the full letters).

In a later post I tried to point out that the practice of putting the
burden of getting permissions on the author is commonplace, the norm, so
let's dispense with that issue.  I was not saying that the publisher was
being unusual, if that is still not clear.

But while we are on the topic of crankiness . . .

=mantis=


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