Posted by PeterH on August 29, 2006 at 12:47:13 from 81.132.219.87 user Peter_H.
In Reply to: Re: Reading sequence (Was Waitin' for you! posted by Alan Hakim on August 29, 2006 at 11:15:09:
Thank you, Alan, and I’ve found the reference. In Best of Childhood p 195, we are told that during 1937, at the time AR was writing We Didn’t Mean . ., he began to fret about readers reading the books out of order. He asked Cape, his publishers, to circulate a notice to all book sellers, as follows:
‘The author particularly asks booksellers not to sell the later volumes of these books to any readers who have not already had Swallows and Amazons, Swallowdale or Winter Holiday.’
Well! It’s just as well AR is not alive today and posted that on TarBoard! Can you imagine the reaction he would get? ‘Acid, hurtful, putting newcomers off TarBoard . . .’ etc etc, the usual hysteria. The fact is that AR was a plain-spoken man at times, and good for him! (whether you agree with him or not). A big cheer went up in my household when I read that out.
In the event, not surprisingly, Cape did not agree, and refused to send out the notice. Instead, they put the familiar note on the back of the jacket, at the top ‘Each of these books is complete in itself . . . .’
It has taken me hours to find that passage, but by jiminy it was worth it! Yee- haaaa!!