The Habits of Book Reviewers

Published in Tribune, 9 February 1945

A sidelight on the habits of book reviewers.

Some time ago I was commissioned to write an essay for an annual scrapbook which shall be nameless. At the very last minute (and when I had had the money, I am glad to say) the publishers decided that my essay must be suppressed. By this time the book was actually in process of being bound. The essay was cut out of every copy, but for technical reasons it was impossible to remove my name from the list of contributors on the title page.

Since then I have received a number of press cuttings referring to this book. In each case I am mentioned as being ’among the contributors’, and not one reviewer has yet spotted that the contribution attributed to me is not actually there.

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