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- Title
Tom Stoppard: Reader's Reports on His Early Work.
- Authors
Baker, William
- Abstract
Presentation, study, discussion, and examination of readers' reports to publishers who employ them have been neglected. The reasons for this may have something to do with the fact that they are in publishing firms' archives or in research libraries where authors' actual manuscripts may well take priority. These reports provide insight into what publishers were looking for at the time, contemporary publishing estimations of the market, of what was sellable or not. They can also shed light on a writer's earliest attempts at publication and what a publisher's reader feels are strengths and weaknesses. This paper will present and discuss six reader's reports on Stoppard's early work authored by different hands employed by the London publishing firm of Faber and Faber. Frank Pike, who worked for Faber for more than forty years, is the reader for two of Stoppard's plays: the play that made Stoppard name Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and Travesties; Nicola Croke comments on radio and television scripts, as do a report by an Australian Broadcasting Commission reader; a reissue of Stoppard's one novel to date, Lord Malquist and Mr Moon is the subject of a report, by "JH" for Faber. The recommendations made by the readers following Pike's awareness of Stoppard's value as a writer and to Faber, reinforce Stoppard's publishing status as a Faber commodity. The article also discusses the in-house reports in the light of subsequent critical reactions and concludes with reflections on the importance of publisher's readers' reports.
- Subjects
STOPPARD, Tom, 1937-; TELEVISION scripts; RESEARCH libraries; PUBLISHING; BROADCASTING industry; LIBRARY research; RADIO programs
- Publication
Interdisciplinary Studies of Literature, 2023, Vol 7, Issue 4, p640
- ISSN
2520-4920
- Publication type
Article