some changes in the publishing market

Excerpt from a letter written by William Empson (above) to Harold Raymond of Chatton & Windus in September of 1944. (Full letter available in “Selected Letters of William Empson.”) Emphasis added.

“I have been wanting for the last ten years or so to get out a little book about Far Eastern Buddhist sculpture, and want to put the plan up to you again. It seems to me that the book would do quite well soon after the defeat of Germany, when popular interest is directed that way. The book would be largely concerned with Japanese sculpture of before 1000 AD, and to that extent rather pro-Japanese than otherwise, but would put the Japanese work as within a single Far Eastern tradition, indeed as largely done by non-Japanese artists; the point would be to look at one aspect of Far Eastern civilisation of which the Japanese are a late offshoot. I have got enough photographs but would welcome any help.”