On behalf of The Churchill Centre, I would like to offer some comments on the various recent messages regarding Jim Muller’s edition of The River War.
I cannot speak directly for Jim and/or the publisher and certainly this work has been in process for a long time. That said, I hope we all recognize and remember what an enormous effort is involved in producing this. The St. Augustine website aptly notes: Editor James W. Muller’s more than fifteen years of research adds thousands of new footnotes identifying people who figure in The River War, explaining Churchill’s references to other books and events, tracking down the original dispatches and illustrations, and establishing a text that encompasses all variations in previous editions. Jim has been working assiduously on this for some years, while teaching full-time as well as remaining involved in and highly supportive of many other things in the Churchill world, including the work of the Centre. We are most grateful for his continued support. Again, I can’t speak specifically for either Jim or St. Augustine but I would caution against the thought that the long time frame is the publisher’s fault or that they have somehow been deliberately dragging this out. The suggestion that there should be a change of publisher is easy to make but in a challenging publishing environment generally, this is a niche product and having someone else step up is easier said than done, even if that were desirable. I don’t know the nature of Jim’s arrangements with St. Augustine but I don’t think it’s correct suggest that they “commissioned” him to produce this or that they provided some significant advance for it. (Jim would probably say, “would that were so…”) I hope this clarifies the situation and I will ask Jim to provide any updates he can on the timing of publication. This will be a landmark in Churchill books and I hope all of the members of this Chat Group will buy a copy. It will surely be worth having and reading. Thanks. Lee Lee Pollock Executive Director The Churchill Centre (312) 263-5637 lpoll...@winstonchurchill.org <mailto:lpoll...@winstonchurchill.org> From: churchillchat@googlegroups.com [mailto:churchillchat@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of chateaustegosau...@att.net Sent: Monday, October 19, 2015 3:25 PM To: churchillchat@googlegroups.com Subject: Re: [ChurchillChat] River War Publication So River War is still under copyright. Jonathan Hayes _____ From: Allen Packwood <allen.packw...@chu.cam.ac.uk <mailto:allen.packw...@chu.cam.ac.uk> > To: "'churchillchat@googlegroups.com'" <churchillchat@googlegroups.com <mailto:churchillchat@googlegroups.com> > Sent: Monday, October 19, 2015 9:06 AM Subject: RE: [ChurchillChat] River War Publication British copyright law in published material is 70 years from the date of the death of the author. Allen From: churchillchat@googlegroups.com <mailto:churchillchat@googlegroups.com> [mailto:churchillchat@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of chateaustegosau...@att.net <mailto:chateaustegosau...@att.net> Sent: 19 October 2015 16:13 To: churchillchat@googlegroups.com <mailto:churchillchat@googlegroups.com> Subject: Re: [ChurchillChat] River War Publication Not sure about British copyright laws but anything published in the US prior to 1923 is out of copyright and in the public domain. Hillsdale College has been reprinting a lot of the official biography companion volumes. Wonder if they'd be interested? Jonathan Hayes _____ From: 'Mark Lowrey' via ChurchillChat <churchillchat@googlegroups.com <mailto:churchillchat@googlegroups.com> > To: churchillchat@googlegroups.com <mailto:churchillchat@googlegroups.com> Sent: Sunday, October 18, 2015 5:16 PM Subject: Re: [ChurchillChat] River War Publication Even a Taiwan bootleg edition would suffice. -----Original Message----- From: Dave Turrell <daturr...@verizon.net <mailto:daturr...@verizon.net> > To: churchillchat <churchillchat@googlegroups.com <mailto:churchillchat@googlegroups.com> > Sent: Sun, Oct 18, 2015 7:01 pm Subject: RE: [ChurchillChat] River War Publication It’s been going on for at least 11 years to my personal knowledge. As the Texans might say, this would appear to be a publisher that is all hat and no cattle… or, as we Brits might prefer it, all mouth and trousers. Their lesser known publication of Savrola remains equally ethereal. My guess would be if Prof. Muller was paid to do the editing and annotation work then St. Augustine’s is pretty much bullet-proof in their choice as to when or if to publish it. I see no reason, however, that the vanilla text of The River War should not be republished as is – I cannot imagine that St. Augustine’s bought the copyright to that. If it can be done then it would be a great service to Churchill bibliography – the full text has not been published since the first edition of 1899/1900. Dave From: churchillchat@googlegroups.com <mailto:churchillchat@googlegroups.com> [mailto:churchillchat@googlegroups.com <mailto:churchillchat@googlegroups.com?> ] On Behalf Of chateaustegosau...@att.net <mailto:chateaustegosau...@att.net> Sent: Sunday, October 18, 2015 5:38 PM To: ChurchillChat@googlegroups.com <mailto:ChurchillChat@googlegroups.com> Subject: [ChurchillChat] River War Publication St. Augustine's Press still has The River War under "Forthcoming Books", yet still no publication date. This has been going on for a donkey's years - has Prof. Muller considered dropping these people and going with some publisher who's actually willing to publish? It would seem that if he has a contract that St. Augustine's Press' lack of performance would be sufficient reason to abandon ship. Just a thought. Jonathan Hayes -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "ChurchillChat" group. 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