Dear Mr McLaren

Thank you for your letter. We shall certainly reciprocate in the matter of complimentary copies and we’re also interested in exchange advertising. I look forward to seeing your next issue and would appreciate receiving a copy by air mail if your circulation mechanism is as slow as ours tends to be.

I notice that you are an official publication of the National Book Council. I’m not quite sure whether that council is an industry body or a government one. In either case, however, I feel this is one area where we differ. When we founded ourselves nine years ago, we decided it was crucial to remain completely independent – free to develop our own editorial policy and take as tough a critical stance as we thought necessary. While government granting agencies provide about one third of our operating funds – $75,000 of $210,000 – that money is in no way conditional and we like to think that in a pinch we would be able to survive (just) without it. Even that arm’s-length connection with government has caused us some embarrassment, since outraged authors frequently choose to see us as a semi-official publication.