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Dewey B. Larson
755 N.E. Royal Court Portland, Oregon 97232 |
Sept. 8, 1983
Dear Jan:
As agreed at Vancouver, I have selected one of Halprin's papers—the 1980 paper entitled “Thoughts From Down under”—and have given it as much editing as I believe is justified. I had not read this paper before. I did hear Halprin read it, but I don’t understand the Australian language very well and I did not get much out of the reading. I was therefore rather surprised to find that it is a better product than comments by some of the ISUS members had led me to believe. Of course, Halprin’s literary style will not win any prizes, but he is raising a perfectly legitimate issue, and is doing a respectable job of arguing his case, even though I do not agree with his principal conclusions.
I have suggested deleting some portions of the paper that I consider irrelevant. I 'believe you are justified in publishing the rest of the paper with the modifications that I have indicated. Ordinarily you would expect to send the paper back to the author for preparation of a corrected version, but in view of the grievances that Halprin has already accumulated, I think it would be better for the ISUS to take care of the retyping, and submit a clean copy to Halprin for approval of the changes. I feel somewhat guilty about dumping this in your lap, but since it appears advisable to finish work on the astronomical volume as soon as possible, I do not like to put in any more time on the Halprin case.
As indicated in one of the enclosures, I am suggesting an editorial introduction to Halprin's paper. I believe it will serve several purposes, one of which is that it will give the readers an advance indication of what he is writing about. This should be an aid to following his argument, which, I will admit, is something less than direct.
I am enclosing a copy of my letter to Halprin (supplementing a short note that I wrote to him immediately on receiving a copy of his letter of complaint). Also enclosed is a letter from one of your foreign friends (another lady editor, I notice).
Sincerely,
