L’affaire Derrida (cont’d)

To the Editors:

It pleases Mr. Thomas Sheehan to assume that the Press bowed to “intimidation tactics” and kowtowed to Jacques Derrida [NYR, Letters, February 11]. The fact is that if anyone reasonably complained to us that a work of his or hers had been used, from his or her point of view without the proper permission and against his or her wishes in a publication of ours, we would take the charge seriously and take steps to remove it in the next printing. This is what we did when Jacques Derrida complained that he had not given permission for his interview to appear in Richard Wolin’s book. We would have done the same if Richard Wolin had in comparable circumstances made a similar complaint about use of a work of his own.

John D. Moore
President and Director
Columbia University Press
New York City

Thomas Sheehan replies:

1) Mr. Moore is wrong again: I “assume” nothing. I documented every point I made. 2) Mr. Moore continues to dodge the facts. As I wrote last time: “To save matters, all Mr. Moore needed to do was omit the Derrida text, as Wolin had agreed, and have the courage to publish Wolin’s new preface intact.”