THE PENALIES OF 'SUCCESS'

For the pocket-kandkerchief of readers who maybe panting to receive TRoL #20, I have news: there are no copies available, the entire run having been exhausted even before it arrived on these shores. Yep, it's sold out, like #3, and I haven't even a copy myself. The last time this happened, my Old Pal and co-founder, Mr. Bellow, against my more prudential will, airily ordered up a double, nay a triple print order for #4. We have an awful lot of #4s as a result.
There is a lesson to this. TRoL does not -- with a very few exceptions -- distribute to book stores such as Barnes & Ignoble. Why not? Because they take 60% of the cover price, pulp those that don't sell, and generally have no interest in anything but wiping out independent booksellers: certainly none in literature. We operate purely by subscriptions. Therefore, if anyone out there wants the magazine -- which is doubtful, as doubtful as the arrival of the US cavalry to save a beleaguered fort being betrayed by Richard Widmark -- we pray that you will subscribe. That way you will get #21 within weeks, which contains a whole book, Souvenirs of Starobielsk by Josef Czapski, on which Andrzej Wajda's new film is based. Plus other good stuff.