Number 20, TRoL

1.xii.09

With issue Number 20, TRoL will appear in a new, more slender format, but also more frequently. The magazine which Saul Bellow and I created some ten years ago has always been irregular, which is no doubt the despair of libraries; but we saw no point in binding ourselves to appearing with monotonous regularity when we could not guarantee that we had sufficient material of the kind we wanted. The title included -24the words 'News from', the idea being that we would constantly be bringing readers to see all sorts of texts they would not otherwise see.

That, in turn, was based on the seventeenth century Republic of Letters. Then, if you were a writer or scholar and were traveling, say, from Dublin to Bologna, by tucking the review under your arm, you were assured of a warm welcome wherever you went: you brought news with you and could gather fresh news from its citizens abroad. That remains of the essence. Which is why we have halved the magazine's size and will now appear when we have 16-24 pages of first class texts. As of writing, we can and will bring out four issues in the next few months.

We shall be fair to our subscribers: if you signed on for four, you will get six.

I hear many complaints that we are unobtainable in the local B&N, Borders and so on. Such indeed is the case, and there are reasons for it: it's a pointless exercise. First, because these supermarkets are among the chief culprits for the now well-advanced demise of literature in the market place. Second, they are not interested in selling such magazines as ours. Third, they pulp. Fourth, they often demand payment for placement. In fact, their view of literature dxtends as far as the required reading for the local college.

We are available at Gotham in New York, Seminary in Chicago, City Lights in San Francisco, John Sandoe in London, Casetti in Rome and a few other places.