Dear
Jonathan Galassi,
I
wanted to let you know that I have decided not to sue FSG for the
many thousands I was never paid on the altogether 50 titles that FSG
has in print through my services; at any rate, not at this time, and
not from Seattle.
The
1966 contract called for participation on my part once a book had
sold in excess of 5,000 copies of 1 %, and in the event of paperback
and book club sales of 2 %. Missing, as I discovered only recently,
is an accounting for the second five titles on the first 10 book
Hesse contract {1}, as well accounting for Nossack's THE IMPOSSIBLE
PROOF, which went into a second priting, as did Christa Wolf's
THINKING ABOUT CHRISTA T., which has had paperback sales, as well as,
of course, Nelly Sachs O THE CHIMNEY'S which sold in excess of 7,500
copies and had book club sales, and you recently licensed another
selection to Green Integer, as has FSG issued licenses in the
past; nor on Handke's RIDE ACROSS LAKE CONSTANCE & OTHER PLAYS,
all of which plays I translated and which title, but for THEY ARE
DING OUT, had been in the works since 1970 although it was not
published until the mid-70s and consists entirely of my translations;
nor of any of the Peter Handke titles, even though many of them were
sold to paperback in many editions.
Things
went well initially, as of 1966. Two of the first three authors were
Nobel Prize winners. Nelly Sachs {2}, whose OH THE CHIMNEYS selection
of poetry and one play and introduction by Hans Magnus Enzensberger I
put together translating 65 poems myself; and a ten book contract for
Hermann Hesse where three of the translations (done for the deceased
editor Roger Klein at Harper & Row) were ready to be published:
Ursule Molinaro's of NARCISS & GOLDMUND, and mine of PETER
CAMENZIND & BENEATH THE WHEEL. These first ten titles were sold
to Bantam Books for handsome advances, NARCISS for $ 500,000.
CAMENZIND and BENEATH THE WHEEL for 250,000. however, as it turned
out, I received accounting and the agreed royalties only on the first
five of the first ten book contract. Also there was the success of
Handke's KASPAR AND OTHER PLAYS, on which I continue to receive
accounting. The Hesse royalties, on all but NARCISS, have
inexplicably been halved as I discovered on enlarging the microscopic
print of the Macmillan/ Holzbrink statements! However, back then,
during the days of early success, I recall buying a Napoleon style
raincoat (during pret a porter forays for the wife!) and
giving it to Handke in 1971 when he was in need and turned out to be
not just an early conqueror, and how we (his wife Libgart and buddy
Kolleritch of SHORT LETTER, LONG FAREWELL fame, and I) were amused
how well the coat suited him as he struck the emblematic pose.
Shortly
before leaving Farrar, Straus in 1969 [prevailed upon by suitor
Siegfried Unseld to represent Suhrkamp through the literary agency
Lantz & Donadio] Roger Straus and I negotiated a second 10 book
contract with Suhrkamp. {see 1} The selection was mine, especially
keen I was on the Hesse letters many of which advised those who
approached him to find someone but not him as a leader preferably to
become inner-directed (a selection which FSG eventually published
under the aegis of friend and Hesse expert Ted Ziolkovsky). Since I
knew of F.S.G.'s reluctance to commit large amounts to advances I
managed to get both parties to come together at the sum of $ 5,000
per title; that is, a total of $ 50,000 – that was at a time when I
imagine Bantam would have offered ten times the amount; and this was
the one time I had lunch at the Four
Seasons with
Roger and the Suhrkamp New York agent, whom I had no idea I might
replace on her resigning the account (and I might have asked why!),
was the Berliner Joan Daves, whom I much liked also for her 30s
stylishness, and whose husband Ashton I would later use as translator
for Adorno as editor at Continuum Books.
However,
I failed to attend to the tip however chintzy that Roger Straus left,
this detail being an allusion to your comments on Roger Straus in
your review of Boris Kachka's recent biography of Farrar, Straus &
Giroux
Leaving
FSG in 1969 with so many titles I had been instrumental in acquiring
still to be published meant leaving as it were mid-pipeline and one
question that was never addressed was the accounting for authors whom
I secured for the firm and where the firm then published numerous
books of theirs in times future, Peter Handke being especially
productive and remunerative.
The
time at FSG – I showed up just one day a week usually for Tuesday's
editorial meetings – was by no means unpleasant, but for one
matter. Hal Vussel was my editor for the Nelly Sachs, Margaret
Nicholson had other talents aside contracts, Henry Wohlforth seemed a
kindly comptroller, the most attuned I was to Henry Robins who
however departed for Simon & Schuster, Bob Giroux of course
seemed like the most formidable of bankers, the only matter that I
gradually allowed myself to realize was that Michael DeCapua had been
assigned or assigned himself to supervise me and shoot down some of
my projects (who didn't know German, as a matter of fact I don't
think any of the then editors had a second language!), including,
after I left, my ADORNO READER, for which Susan Sontag had promised
to write the introduction, and which I had spent a year devising –
obviously an ADORNO READER at that time, published in the early 70s,
would have had a major impact and made a difference in the level of
critical discourse. Imagine that, a twerp (not to use my customary
appellation {3}, like DeCapua, who also sought to abort my Handke,
sabotaging Adorno! I of course might have asked Roger how this came
about that this creature was sicked on to me, or why he was so keen
to do in someone like me. Looking back, I was even slower and less
able to defend myself than I am now.
Within
the year of representing Suhrkamp, that is in 1970, I had a call from
Roger saying I ought not to double-dip the second Hesse contract
(which actually had not been signed and was not running over
Lantz-Donadio though the anticipation was that it would) and, after
consulting with Candida Donadio (who concurred with Straus who
represented this as an ethical matter!!!), I agreed – although even
then it occurred to me that there was really no earthly reason why
the same source of income, Hesse – at Lantz-Donadio the agency and
I split the then 10% agent's income – could not help defray my
livelihood at different places of work at different times.
Near
simultaneously Straus suggested why not take a snap shot of the books
on which you are then {that is, in 1970) receiving royalties, and
since there was no particular reason to say no, but a possible
upside, we signed a list of that kind to that effect, a piece of
paper which (for all I now know since the firm refuses to reply to my
queries) I believe was a trick, although I never conceived that
someone who was making millions from books I had brought him would
screw me; not that subsequent experiences did not teach me that that
was precisely the point of how you became and stayed rich, i.e. a
wishful delusion of mine since in fact I had had two warning signs
that all might not be well on that score.
For
about the time that I started to work at F.S.G. - Roger cherry picked
me in 1966 when I had stopped by F.S.& G. in my capacity as
Suhrkamp scout
I
was introduced (I think it was via Bryn Mawr classmate friend Paula
Diamond) to Cecil Hemley who had sold the NOONDAY BOOKS paperback
line to Roger. Cecil mentioned that he had been screwed by Roger on
the deal. I might have inquired further, but I did not. Cecil died
shortly thereafter and his son Robin, born in 1958, who never really
knew his dad, has no knowledge of family lore in what respect Roger
had been remiss in the Noonday contract. The other warning I had had
was when Roger, out of the nowhere, said to me, referring to the
Nelly Sachs volume OH THE CHIMNEYS, that I had spent a year putting
together: “We don't pay royalties on poetry translations.” This
of course was entirely against our contract, but I think I was just
too stunned to immediately object, and quit, or go to court. Another
crudity along the same line was Roger's saying “Now let's hustle
her ass” - poor Nelly if she had ever heard her heart's blood
referred to in that fashion!
I
myself left the Lantz-Donadi agency and the Suhrkamp representation
in 1971 {6} because Dr. Unseld, the head of Suhrkamp, had made
himself unrepresentable by seeking to breach the agreed upon terms
for mass paperback splits between Suhrkamp and Farrar, Straus of the
first Hesse contract {Hesse seems to elicit greed and not much else,
starting with his heirs!); and that breach was the main reason the
2nd Hesse contract had not been finalized, and so I did not get to
dip a single time on that; and the contract then ran I believe over
my successor, the now deceased Kurt Bernheim, a matter easily
ascertained by contacting the person who handles rights at Suhrkamp
Verlag, Dr. Petra Hardt. Another reason I quit was that the
representational work turned onerous and I earned $ 125 per week
while generating at least an equal amount in overhead cost and ended
up subsidizing my agency work – which turned what was meant a part
time into a full time job - with my royalties!
When
I started to call Roger Straus' attention to the fact that I never
dipped once – first in the mid-eighties, then once more in the 90s
- he refused to answer, as have you, his successor, or Holzbrinck,
the new owner, to whom he sold F.S.G., it is said for 30 million
dollars, and John Sargent the head of Macmillan U.S.A. who oversees
the U.S part of the conglomerate.
If
I were in New York I would bring suit myself; and have the hunch that
a judge would be sympathetic to my case if I brought it per
se.
I mean I brought huge riches to that firm and lack the finances to
repair my teeth! I would pillory that firm and the, in so many ways,
admirable you, like me a translator and scholar and poet (and who
appears able to do that and running a sizable firm simultaneously!),
for failing to make good on my contract. However, even if I were in
New York I would have to pay $ 10 K to bring suit in Federal Court, a
sum I have not had in my account for more than ten years; thus, NY
State court would be the way to go since the contract was drawn and
executed there. It is too difficult and
expensive at this remove, from Seattle. Even if I collected the
maximum that might be owed during the past six seven years - the
cut-off date for the statute of limitation - it would not amount to
more than six or seven thousand dollars, scarcely sufficient to cover
the cost of filing a federal lawsuit. There is of course the future
income to consider!
Bringing
suit in NY state court would not require the initial outlay
Moreover, once I discovered the benefits of a modicum of legal
training, I won two per se suits in Federal Court against an
ex in Urizen Books {4}, and if I had collected these hundred of
thousands I wouldn't bother with FSG, I mean I am when it comes to my
self pathologically ungreedy as well as evidently negligent, only
noticing about six months ago that I was being payed on only the
first five titles of the initial 10 book Handke contract!, something
that would have made a difference in my life in the 70s + 80s when
these titles were published and earning the bulk of their income also
upon being sold to Bantam books for mass paperback publication; yet
they have remained in print all this time as have the ten titles from
the second 10 book Hesse contract. - Roger saved himself at least a
couple of hundred thousand dollars over the life-time of these
contracts, but lacked the decency to make good once he sold the firm.
However,
if you happen to know anyone who knows how to collect U.S. Federal
judgments in Calabria, Palermo to be specific, I gladly share the
proceeds 50/50!
As
matter of fact, if a small legacy that I lived on as the most modest
of writer-scholar mice, in addition to my royalties, had not disparu
while I lived in Mexico from 1991 to 1994, I probably would not
bother either! If I had had that income I might have gone to the
planned Michoacan and if the Mexican amoeba had not finally done me
in I would have lived amongst the tribe that worships the Monarch
butterfly and not gone back to translating for a time (5) and not
have the priceless experience, upon returning to the USSR, that
produced the unplanned “WRITE SOME NUMB'S, BITCH!”
and
been unlikely to have been in the position to create the
Handke.scriptmania complex and its successor
So
it turns out, if you want me to be productive don't shower me with
wealth or even now, in advanced age, I might revert to the sometimes
quite wonderful sybaritic ways of late 70 to mid -80s NY that I made
myself escape since I seem to love to work.
Roger
Straus it turns out was not just crude but subtly tricky; not just
chintzy but a chiseler, and, knowing that a publishing house is the
leakiest sieve, looked toward the future, counted future pennies
while he kept dressing in 12 ply suits, drove his yellow convertible
Mercedes and, if one is to believe what one reads in Kachka's book,
was pasha of a sexual sewer on Union Square – more than I noticed
at the time, though during the two times I traveled with Roger to the
Frankfurt Bookfair I could not help but notice that he favored the
hetero side of what's called “rough trade.” All this while
apparently dancing on the precipice of bankruptcy!
That
to some he was a great publisher was perhaps only possible in the NY
of the time, but I don't want to repeat what I posted
yet
it isn't really so surprising that the bulk of Anglo-American
publishing is now owned by various continental conglomerates, what
with the NY Times Henry Raymond always running to Roger as though he
were the oracle of the book publishing world – how provincial can
you get!
Thus
I rue the day that I allowed myself to be cherry-picked by Roger, if
I had managed to work up some enthusiasm for Viking Books' initial
take-down of the Warren Report matters might have been different. {6}
Since
Roger also smartly cherry-picked you over his own son, the question
is whether you are not just a better publisher, as you and the firm
strike me {but for the ctd. inability to publish Handke as he ought
to be and as he is by his other major foreign publishers
but,
I put it to you, also more honorable.
Sincerely
yours,
- 206-612-4576
Michael
Roloff
4616
= 25th Ave NE # 357
Seattle.
WA 98105
1]
FIRST & 2nd TEN BOOK CONTRACTS:
here
is a link to all the Hesse titles that Bantam Books put out.
http://tinyurl.com/oeesdtx
All
but STEPPENWOLF, GLASSBEAD GAME + DEMIAN derive via me from FSG.
Here
the link to FSG/McMillan for Hesse.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/hermannhesse
2]
NELLY SACHS. I happened to have the option on Nelly Sachs at the
time that one fine morning in Fall 1966, on waking, the NY Times
greeted me with the news of the award. I called Roger and promised
to translate a half dozen poems for the next editorial meeting.
Then I hired Michael Hamburger and Ruth and Mathew Mead to
translate together with me. For me the translation of 65 of those
poems was my mourning work and it wiped me out emotionally, which
is why I did not participate in the 2nd
volume that FSG published.
3]
“Asslicking stiletto man.”
I
am just completing something autobiographical that I call SCREEN
MEMORIES. It ends in 1960. Much as I love learning and teaching
California girls at Stanford I have dropped out of grad school, the
prospect of being a life-long member of a German – or any -
department had made me go dead. I went to Alaska and fought forest
fires and worked as a geological surveyor for nine months. I am not
going to Ibiza for the winter as do so many fire fighters; I am not
tough enough for the McCabe & Mrs. Miller winter at Chena Ridge
in Fairbanks; the girl I am seeing does not ask me to enjoy cabin
fever with her, but is waiting for her main squeeze lumberjack to
show back up; I am dwelling on how I will go on adventuring. The
idea of driving nitro glycerin trucks in the Venezuelan oil fields
signifies that I have seen too many films, I really don't like
getting my head under water I conclude at the prospect of going
conch diving in the South Seas, if I had known that my childhood
negative role model had a big safari outfit in Mozambique
http://tinyurl.com/nur5hrp
I
can't imagine not spending some time with him, I was in good shape,
a good enough woodsman, a good enough shot, but during one of these
wild nights at Chena Ridge I am evidently reverying and have a
“eureka” moment, and my friend Carlson, a big Swede from
Minnesota, says, “You just reached a big decision.” Right: I
recall Pound's ABC of Reading – that is “my way”! A magazine
for starters! And looking back, I sometimes think that staying in
Alaska and hooking up with an expatriate biologist at the
university who went out each summer looking for the ur-beaver that
he felt might have survived at one of the hot springs the last ice
age I would have encountered far fewer carnivores than I did during
my days in publishing in New York. I quite understand Bob Giroux's
inability to write FSG's company history at the thought of Roger
Straus.
5]
TRANSLATING I mean there was nothing wrong with translating Adorno
and Habermas, especially not with translating Josef Winkler, except
that it took me away from the planned work of my own.
6]
VIKING I who was just married in 1966 and looking for a somewhat
steadier source of income than working as a translator and
freelance reader with a book contract at Viking never conceived of
asking as august a firm as F.S.G. for any kind of job. I also had a
book contract with Viking, my editor was Alan Williams, I also was
friendly with their editor in chief, Aaron
Asher,
who took me to lunch, and found the material interesting for the
book that I am completing only now {not the one contracted for),
but I think was testing me when he mentioned that
Viking
was about to publish a take-down of the Warren Report. I didn't
bite. I was entirely indifferent, although if you had asked me
whether I thought the take-down would be a commercial success I
certainly would have assented, not that I could have imagined it
becoming an industry, unless I considered the Lincoln
assassination. Not that I thought Kennedy was a Lincoln of any
kind. I remained indifferent because I figured that at least half a
dozen culprits might have killed the dead man walking that was
Kennedy after the Bay of Pigs, and then there were some enemies of
course I didn't know about then.
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