Quote of the Week

Dateline: 12/1/98

From The Times (UK), “Beware the Philistines of publishing,” November 25, 1998:

If a conglomerate publisher decides that every book on its list must be conceived as bearing an equal load of the expenses of the firm, then what once looked like a modestly profitable little number suddenly turns into a disgraceful little slacker. If my slim volume must do its part in sending a hundred boozy publishers to Frankfurt, or commissioning a coffin-shaped table for the boardroom, then I am at a serious disadvantage.

--James Fenton,
on Oxford University Press's decision
to can their contemporary poetry line

James Fenton is Professor of Poetry at Oxford University & the author of several collections of poetry:

• Children in Exile: Poems 1968-1984* (Noonday Press reprint edition, 1994)
• Out of Danger* (Noonday Press, 1994; paperback reprint edition, 1995)

& a forthcoming collection of essays:

• Leonardo's Nephew: Essays in the History of Art and Artist* (Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1999)

*As a result of a commercial relationship between About.com, its Guides and Amazon.com online booksellers, this title can be purchased directly from Amazon.com by following the link above. (Note: Amazon.com is solely responsible for fulfillment of book orders placed through these links.)