Earlier Joint Venture

I was interested in Mathis Chazanov’s article, “Joint Volume Is Poetic Justice for Soviets, Americans (Feb. 24), about the American-Soviet publishing venture, “The Human Experiment.” Chazanov is correct in stating that this collaboration is not unique. However, “The Joint Volume of Memories by Soviet and American World War II Veterans” was published both in the United States by Capra Press, Santa Barbara, and in Moscow in 1988. The English title is “Yanks Meet Reds”; the Russian is “The Meeting at the Elbe.”

Last fall, as a World War II veteran I brought a copy of this book to share with Soviet veterans on the Soviet-American walk from Odessa to Kiev. At a regional fair in Cherkassy, I bought a copy of the Russian edition.

The year 1988 witnessed another pioneer cooperation of American and Soviet writers with publication in both countries of “Breakthrough--Emerging New Thinking--Soviet and Western Scholars Issue a Challenge to Build a World Beyond War.”(Walker Anco, New York). “Breakthrough” has sold more than 45,000 copies in the United States, more than 60,000 in the Soviet Union.

With more than 5,000 groups working for world peace, and 250 groups working to improve American-Soviet relations, in the United States--I bet Knopf will be able to sell many more than 7,500 copies of “The Human Condition.”

BILLY LIEB

Committee on the Present Opportunity

Santa Monica