Lindhardt og Ringhof. Et forlagseventyr

When men had art and women
had babies
From Fay Weldon to Lindhardt og Ringhof
I was seven novels into my writing career in England before
I was published in a language other than English. The novel
was Praxis, the language was Danish, the publisher was the
new Lind h ardt and Ringhof, and the year was 1980.
I assumed this tardiness was for the normal reason – that
it was too early in the world’s history for novels by women
to be considered “literature”. Literature was what got
translated – that is to say, novels by men. Novels by women
were not worth the bother and were seen as flimsy, lightweight,
overemotional things. Men had art, was the belief
at the time, women had babies. Publishing in the seventies
was still a male dominated profession, especially so in
Scandinavia. Critics were male, elder ly, and never smiled.
They were not argued with, and couldn’t bear anything
which took female domestic life – which was pretty much
all the life women had at the time – seriously. Booksellers
likewise. And the old-style publishers fell into line.
There were other factors at work of course, but I was an
ardent feminist and blind to them. Forget that I was female;
the fact that my UK publisher was Hodder and Stoughton
didn’t help. They published books for the middle market;
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