Review of Shaw Neilson and Louis Stone by H. J. Oliver

Abstract

A dollar may seem a lot to pay for these slim (48 page) monographs, but for the size of the market they could hardly be produced for less: and they are well made —good type and design, and quality paper. As physical objects the items in the series are more attractive than those that appeared in an earlier incarnation under the Lansdowne Press imprint and the general editorship of Geoffrey Dutton. (In those days Max Harris was going to write on Neilson: what became of that, I wonder?) 'The constant purpose of the series' it says on the back cover 'is to treat each writer readably and accurately in a manner suitable equally to senior school children, university students, scholars and the general reader'. That, of course, would be an impossible task. What the comment indicates is the total market the publisher has in mind and consequently the conflicting interests the authors must balance against each other and find a compromise between. Professor Oliver, it seems to me, has met these conflicting demands very well.