36 | Edward Conze [21/02/79]

Dear Sir,

we hear always so much about the
unrivalled efficiency of Germans, that I am
rather disappointed to see that no progress
whatsoever has been made either with the
Insel Verlag or the Verlag Neue Kritik. No
further information about the Buddhist books
or The Psychology of Mass Propaganda (of
which I would like to see my copy back one day)
or of my The Memoirs of a Modern Gnostic in
which the Verlag NK seem to take an interest. For
various reasons I have decided to have my SAGA
privately printed, and from the enclosed leaflet
you can see where we are at present, although
the actual copies have so far been held up by
our current industrial chaos.

I was not suprised that on your journey
you were shocked by the devasting effect
which the "West" has had on the East. The
truth of the matter is that the U.S.A. have
invigorated countries like Germany, Japan,
Taiwan and South Korea to quite an extraordinary
extend, but in other places, such as Vietnam,
Iran and Egypt they have done only harm. Will
any publication result from your journey, or
did you want just to look for yourself?

As you can see from this leaflet, I intend
to sell my SAGA through Kommissionäre. Can
you think of a firm in Frankfurt which might
take one hundred copies on spec? Apart from
that, have you any idea why these various
projects about my books have not been followed
up? Is it possible that they have got cold
feet?

With my best wishes, I am

Yours in the Dharma

EC