In response to:
Pirated Edition from the February 25, 1971 issue
To the Editors:
Edmund Wilson in his letter to you [NYR, February 25] claims that Beacon Press published a pirated edition of one of his books. This is not true. We have never published a book by Mr. Wilson.
We assume that Mr. Wilson is referring to our republication of a book review he wrote in 1929 for The New Republic. In 1960 we published the review as prefatory material to a paperback edition after having consulted both The New Republic and the Copyright Office of the Library of Congress to establish the fact that the review was in the public domain. Our edition made it clear that Mr. Wilson’s essay had been written in 1929 and first published in The New Republic.
In 1965 Mr. Wilson wrote us about our use. We outlined the situation to him and sent him an unsolicited fee which he accepted. Because of the question he raised, we omitted his review from subsequent printings of the book although he did not ask us to do so.
Gobin Stair
Director
Beacon Press
Boston, Massachusetts
This Issue
April 22, 1971
This Issue
April 22, 1971
