StudienVerlag - Oapen

Von Victor Gollancz
London, 9.7.1946
Ms. m. Kopf m. U., ÖNB
My dear Neumann,
Please, let us drop this correspondence. I have printed 20.000 copies of the book:
do you think I am going to be such an ass as not to make every possible effort to
sell them? My own view, as I thought I made clear in my letter, is that the result
is due to the very fact that this is a novel about conditions in Europe. My own
experience is that, while there is little falling off in documentaries (which appeal
to a quite definite and special public), there is the beginning of a serious slump in
fiction dealing either with the war or with present conditions. In other words, now
that the war is over the fiction public wants to be amused.
But that will only make me allthe more anxious to do my utmost to sell the
book. […]
Gollancz hat von den „printed 20.000 copies“ allerdings nur 5.000 Exemplare binden
lassen und 15.000 ungebunden auf Halde gelegt. Gollancz sei vertragstreu, eine Klage
gegen ihn könne keinen Erfolg haben, gibt im März 1947 der von Neumann um Hilfe
gebetene Anwalt und Freund Harold Rubinstein zu verstehen. Der juristisch bedrohte
Gollancz erklärt sich selbst rückblickend zum Erpressungsopfer: „You did not merely
allow us to publish your book; you pressed it on us as a matter of conscience and political
honour.“ (Alle Briefe in ÖNB). Einschließlich einer „cheap edition“ (1949) scheint
die Gollancz-Ausgabe etwa 8.000 Käufer gefunden zu haben.
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