47 DOLLARS AND CHANGE

(To reviewer Judith Martin)

Early Sunday morning a call came from Phil and Vivian in Long Beach. A while back I had mentioned to them that the L.A. Times had requested a copy of “Italian Hours,” and they’ve kept their eyes open, hoping that some stray--very stray--note would appear, probably on the food page. At first they missed (Judith Martin’s) review (May 10)) because, as Phil said, “It was too big!,” but Vivian spotted it over cereal. I calmed Phil down.

You can understand how such attention pleases me. My last book on Henry James came out in 1986, and after considerable success among the academic reviewers, it sold 723 copies, and the royalties, which have so far amounted to $47.03, continue to dribble in. I wasn’t after the “Italian Hours” project for the cash (I gave up royalties on the first--and only projected--printing to help keep the price down), but I did want the book, the neglected book, to get out there, to give more people pleasure, and to make some academics reconsider what Italy meant in the 19th Century.

HJ was good to Judith Martin in Italy, as he has been good to me. I hated to see the project end. The few photos were entirely at my expense, and even so, I had to throw a scena alla italiana to get the press to put them in at all.

Some of the notes I had to leave out, notes which would have meant something only to someone whose grandmother had been born in Grottoferrata or who happened to be there on the first anniversary of the terrorist bombing in Bologna. These were delicious ones, perhaps not for the public, but I don’t forget them, and who knows where they will emerge one day.

(Martin’s) fine and generous sense of HJ, his book, and Italy has given me a lift. And she has been very generous to his editor. The idea of a whole new venue--Los Angeles!--for my (I hope) humane academic work, excites me. I sit by the phone, waiting for the inevitable call from Melanie Griffith or Jessica Lang, for advice on a tour of the Veneto. . . .

JOHN AUCHARD

WASHINGTON, D.C.