Protest

To the Editors:

I wish to protest the misstatements of fact in the advertisement on p. 11 of your May 7 issue.

It is stated that “This is the famous collection first published in Paris in 1953 and never before available here.” Nevertheless the table of contents of this limerick compilation appears to be the same as the Two Volume paperback edition titled The Limerick with an Introduction by L. T. Woodward, M.D. and published in 1967 by Greenleaf Classics Inc., 5839 Mission Gorge Road, San Diego, California 92120. This was available at paperback stores in San Francisco a few years ago. I got my copy at the City Lights Bookstore.

On page 340 of volume 2, Limerick no. 1628 concerns the posterior proportions of a young lady named Alice. I wrote this back in 1935 or 36 about a government clerk in Washington D.C. and passed it to the late Anthony Boucher, whence it came to the compiler (be he Dr. Woodward or Professor Legman) from the “Berkeley collection.” If this expensive version advertised by Brandywine Press has this same item under the same number I would contend that the advertisement is unduly misleading, even if the Introduction by Mr. Legman is different from that by Dr. Woodward.

I note that distribution is to be very exclusive and there will be no review copies. What a pity.

I think I am entitled to an author’s discount, myself.

Joel W. Hedgpeth

Marine Science Center

Newport, Oregon 97365