“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

My own position cannot be as immediate as your own. I respect your emotional reactions whatever they are, and your right to them. (Loudly and amused:) Seth, it seems, speaks a bit more briefly in Dutch than he does in English —but the material is there, and if the Dutch have cut it, or your notes, it is, in the most basic of terms, now, their loss.

(Yesterday we received from Prentice-Hall the Dutch edition of Seth Speaks [Seth Spreekt], published by Ankh-Hermes. We saw at once that the book had been rather drastically cut—not only my own notes, which contain excerpts from Seth material at times—but Seth’s material itself. This is particularly obvious in the appendix, where only a few pages are left of all of that material. No greetings or responses are included except in isolated instances, nor any good-evenings and closing notes. Times are also left out, and no words are underlined. I suspect also that throughout the book, without my having checked yet, portions of the sessions have been cut whenever they were dependent upon notes that were cut. Some of the sessions, then, are only a page and a half, or two, long.

(Jane also discussed with Tam a number of points growing out of our last royalty statements; some of these are quite legitimate gripes that we’ve kept quiet about for some time. Her implications to Tam were clear enough—we hope: that for the first time she was thinking of alternate courses of action to being published by Prentice-Hall, perhaps trying other publishers, Eleanor Friede among them. I was all for that, I told her. During the week after the Dutch edition arrived, we received from Tam the contracts for God of Jane and Mass Events, both of which contain phrases and clauses in an effort to get around Prentice-Hall’s habit of withholding percentages of earnings against returns. She told Tam she wouldn’t sign them, nor do I want her to. Prentice-Hall even wants to apply any losses for God of Jane against Mass Events after 18 months, in an effort to make one book pay for another! As it is, Prentice-Hall is now applying earnings from the paperback Politics against the hardcover losses—a method Tam says is common in the trade, but which I think is ethically dishonest, to say the least. They did the same thing with Adventures; in this case, that action wiped the board clean for the hardcover Adventures, and even showed a small profit from the paperback sales. But still, it costs us. I view such tactics as the publisher’s way of guaranteeing their publishing costs with no risk to themselves. Instead of charging hardcover losses against taxes as a business expense, say, they charge the author for them; this means they do not have to pay the author any royalties on paperback sales, for at least several years. I don’t think Jane yet grasps the implications here.

(Day before yesterday we received from Tam a copy of his memo to J. Nelson, P. Grenquist, and A. Freemyer; he’s checked the Dutch contract for Seth Speaks, and learned that it contained a clause prohibiting cutting. I’m using the memo as a basis for the letter I intend to start writing Grenquist tomorrow. At the same time I’ll be checking what portions of Seth Speaks were cut, and listing them.

[...] I added that we expected the Dutch translation of the same book to be published later this year, but that we didn’t know just when this would happen — so Jane and I were understandably surprised last Thursday to receive a letter from a reader in Holland, informing us that he’d just purchased a copy of the Dutch edition of Seth Speaks! [...] We’ve had no correspondence with the Dutch publisher, Ankh-Hermes, about a publication date. Jane called her editor at Prentice-Hall, Tam Mossman, who had no knowledge of the Dutch Seth Speaks being marketed either; he’s to check with Ankh-Hermes and let us know. [...]

[...] (Loudly and amused:) Seth, it seems, speaks a bit more briefly in Dutch than he does in English—but the material is there, and if the Dutch have cut it, or your notes, it is, in the most basic of terms, now, their loss. [...]

1. Some of my letters were triggered on October 9 (this month), when Jane and I received our first copies of Seth Spreekt, the Dutch-language edition of Seth Speaks. We saw at once that the people at Ankh-Hermes, the publishing company in the Netherlands, had cut the book considerably. [...]

[...] And all concerned must wait at least another year before a full-length version of Seth Speaks will be published in the Dutch language.

1. In October 1979 Jane and I saw, to our dismay, that the Dutch publisher of the translation of Seth Speaks had violated his contract with Prentice-Hall by making many unauthorized cuts in the book. [...] After hearing from Jane and me and her editor, Tam Mossman, the Dutch publisher agreed to market a new, uncut translation of Seth Speaks this year. [...]

[...] Majurak—last name—ended up in what is now Warsaw—a trader, a merchant—4 children —a French wife—earlier in 1242—a Dutch existence. [...]

Earlier in 1242 a Dutch existence. [...]

Earlier in 1242 a Dutch existence. [...]

(Today Jane heard from Tam that Prentice-Hall had signed a contract with a Dutch publisher for a translation of Seth Speaks into that language. [...] But the Dutch language? [...]

(In addition, we expect that later this year the Dutch translation of Seth Speaks will be published — but again, we don’t know just when this will happen. [...]

[...] Today I worked also on chronologies for a Dutch publisher, and for the film producer who’s optioned the movie rights to Jane’s Oversoul Seven novels.

[...] It’s been called Russian, Irish, German, Dutch, Italian, and even French. [...]

[...] Our editor at Prentice-Hall, Tam Mossman, insisted that Ankh-Hermes publish another, full-length edition of Jane’s book in the Dutch language. [...]

(And these final notes: We still don’t know whether the Dutch edition of Seth Speaks has been published — but we do know that our good friend Sue Watkins is presently working on Chapter 15 of Conversations With Seth, the book she’s writing about Jane’s ESP classes. [...]

[...] At the same time, Tam Mossman, Jane’s editor at Prentice-Hall, is trying to find out whether the Dutch edition of Seth Speaks has been published. [...] We expect the same kind of response from those who will seek out the Dutch Seth Speaks. [...]

There was no ill intent on the part of the Dutch publisher, or the German. [...]

Early in September—magically appearing as though from another reality, for we’d quite forgotten about the situation—we received through Prentice-Hall six copies of the reprinted Dutch-language edition of Seth Speaks. [...]

[...] I also wrote that “all concerned must wait for at least another year before a full-length version of Seth Speaks will be published in the Dutch language.” [...]

[...] My experience in female lives varied from that of a plain Dutch spinster to a courtesan at the time of the biblical David, to several existences as a humble mother with children.

[...] He could end up as a Dutch uncle, as you say, if you continue with this sort of endeavor.

I started to smile, though, thinking of it: According to Rob the can of Dutch Cleanser had really jumped when my fist came down on the table the first time, and the cleaning supplies next to my elbow had gone flying. [...]

[...] The almost wordless quality of our surprise reminded me of our feelings of a year and a half ago, when we’d learned that the Dutch firm, Ankh-Hermes, had published an abridged edition of Seth Speaks in that language, without our permission.⁷