Ron Radosh: Your comment is awaiting moderation.
June 23rd, 2008 at 9:45 am

Roger,
As an author who has published two well received and reviewed Encounter books (Commies: A Journey Through the Old Left, the New Left and the Leftover Left; and Red Star Over Hollywood: The Film Colony’s Long Romance with the Left) I have two thoughts on your decision.
First, I understand your logic and argument. In the case of the book my wife and I co-authored about Hollywood and the Communists, the NYTBR published a rather vicious and obviously biased left-wing review. The headline (which the author of the review was not responsible for) was something like “The Blacklist: The View from the Right.” The reviewer, ironically a man affiliated with the Manhattan Institute, wrote that his 30 year old book was a nuanced centrist book; Victor Navasky’s “Naming Names” was a left-wing book on the topic, and ours was a “right-wing” book, hence to be dismissed.
The rest of the review went on to argue that we got everything wrong, and the author did not even attempt to let readers know what our argument and evidence was. In contrast, David Oshinksy- a centrist and smart Pulitzer Prize winning historian, gave it a rave major review in The Los Angeles Times, and understood perfectly what was new and different about our book, as wel as the arguments we offered. We foolishly did not take the opportunity to answer thne negative review in the letters page. I did,however,complain to the editor of the Review, who told me he stood by the review which he considered fair.
It is obvious, in this case, that the NYTBR review actually hurt the sales of the book. It nevertheless did well- it got positive reviews almost everywhere else and in virtually the entire print media, which did not ignore it. As expected, the only other negative reivew which was arugably even worse than that in the Times, was in the very liberal Washington Post book review. I should add that my first Encounter book, Commies, also got a well placed and very negative and hostile review in the Review’s pages.
My second thought is that you ignore the front page major review of Fred Siegel’s book about Rudy Giuliani, “Prince of the City.” It was somewhat critical, but the respect given it as well as the major placement obviously helped alert NYTBR readers to the existence of Encounter Books, as a publishing arm that has to be taken seriously. It also undoubtedly had to help with New York City readers in particular learning of Siegel’s book, and deciding to purchase it.
So I am ambivalent about whether or not you have made the correct decision. Also, isn’t there a chance that the Review will nevertheless learn about and decide to review an Encounter book, even if you don’t send it to them automatically? And what if one of Encounter’s authors does want you to at least try to get the Times to review it?
I await your thoughts.
Best,
Ron