Theos-Talk Archives (May 1996 Message tl00042)

>I did not know that TPH even had an idea of publishing Tillett's
>book on CWL. The original  publication was by Routledge, Kegan
>and Paul and large number of copies were langushing in half
>price books stores due to lack of demand. It would have been a
>business disaster for TPH to have considered publishing a book
>which they may not be able to sell.
>
>     ....doss


Hi Doss,

      Just to put a little perspective on this, I would like to
add in some details.  I had a conversation with Gregory Tillett
concerning TPH's offer of publishing the book.  Sometime before
the mss was committed to a publisher, word had gotten out that he
was going to publish CWL's biography and that it would not put
him in a good light.  You might remember that Hugh Sherman around
that time published a pamphlet that tried to counter the issues
that were rumored to be in Tillett's mss.  Now according to Greg,
he received a letter from TPH offering to purchase the mss.  But
the way the letter was worded, and in consideration of the
timing, Greg understood that it was not TPH's intention to
publish the book, but by owning the rights to it, to assure that
no one else would.  This is of course second hand information
now, but it is in perfect accord with my own experiences with
Wheaton.
      Regarding the monetary wisdom of publishing Tillett's book,
My guess is that Routledge has people on their staff that are at
least as capable of deciding the marketability of a book, as the
staff at TPH.  However, in the case of Tillett's book, and
unforseen event took place.  Routledge changed ownership.  The
old Routledge had a small but growing line of books on occult
subjects and was working their way into this market.  The new
owners of Routledge had no interest in occult books, and dumped
the entire line.  My understanding was that the new owners had
decided to destroy the stock on hand rather than go through the
trouble of distributing them to half price stores.  So I'm
surprised that you have seen them there.  I have not, and as a
book dealer, it is my business to watch for those things.
      In the case of Tillett's book, Point Loma Publications
received notice of Routledge's intention to destroy the remaining
stock, and decided to purchase it so that it would still be
available.



JHE

JHE@TOTO.CSUSTAN.EDU