“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(I also think Prentice-Hall will go through the formality of protesting the cuts to the foreign publishers, without exacting much of any retribution, especially with all that money invested in plates. Jane and I will be left with the situation as it exists, then. Except that theoretically at least we’ll be able to prevent it happening any more if we control foreign rights from now on. There doesn’t appear to be any money worth mentioning involved, at least for us. I always thought the foreign sales were great for the foreign publishers, though, since they owe Prentice-Hall only 6%.

(All of this material is on file in detail. Yesterday Jane confirmed with Tam by phone that we will take full control of foreign rights; not to try to make a lot of money, because we don’t think it can be done, but simply to prevent our being taken advantage of by any more foreign publishers. In all probability taking control of foreign rights merely means that there won’t be any. I’ve already written Ariston that we will sell them no more work after their dishonesty with Seth Speaks, and plan to do the same thing soon with Ankh-Hermes. At the moment we’re waiting to learn their reaction to correspondence from Prentice-Hall, demanding that the cut portions of the book be restored—a move I cannot see them complying with for economic reasons alone.

(All during this time, October–November, we’ve also been involved in a series of hassles with the foreign publishers Ankh-Hermes and Ariston. We’ve learned to our sorrow and rage that both entities have cut their versions of Seth Speaks, without our permission or knowledge, and have struggled to exert what force we could in order to rectify the situation. I thought it much more likely that these sorts of challenges were much more likely to be behind my problems. We do feel let down on the issue of foreign rights by Prentice-Hall, and the overseas publishers as well. As I’ve said to Jane more than once, “I wonder what we ought to know that Tam hasn’t told us”—meaning of course that every time a hassle develops with Prentice-Hall we find out a new batch of information that Tam has known all along but never relayed to us. This makes for a series of ugly surprises along the way of our travels with Prentice-Hall, since they always seem to involve money in a negative way, or royalties being withheld, etc.

(So as I write this on Wednesday morning at 11:20 we expect to receive from Tam today a “care package,” as he put it, of the latest correspondence involving our foreign hassles. I intend to finish this session today, and make preparations to resume painting each day. I think at the moment that I’ll continue to rise early to get three hours in on Mass Events in the mornings, paint and run errands in the afternoons, and have evenings for either sessions or more work on Mass Events. Let’s hope things run smoothly enough. As I told Jane last night, there isn’t much more we can do about foreign rights; let’s hope that challenge has been met.)

(I didn’t think of any foreign book-publishing rights being involved, though, as Seth indicates. Last month we were informed through Tam and personal letter from Switzerland that a foreign translation of Seth Speaks may be in the works, but nothing concerning Spain that we know of. [...]

[...] The Spain connection with your friend the traveler, Carlos (Smith), and with the question of foreign translation of the books. [...]

(It may simply be that Seth was referring to a foreign publisher in any European country, as one of the ingredients in this story of the workings of Framework 2. Card from Carlos attached to this session for reference if needed.)

[...] At first thought I didn’t know what to make of the session, which I suppose merely reflects my own indecisive state of mind about the hassle with foreign publishers, Prentice-Hall, money, art, writing, and so forth. All the details about the foreign rights fiasco are on file, so there’s no need to recount them here, except to say that Tam, serving as liaison for us with Ariston and Ankh-Hermes, has failed, as far as we know at this writing, to elicit any response from anyone at either place. [...]

(As far as changing our mental accounts re Prentice, I don’t know whether I can bring myself to do that or not, especially after the foreign mess. [...]

(In my letters I intend to demand that we see the version in manuscript to be published by any foreign press, or the galleys, or whatever. [...] We’ll also want to see a copy of the contract itself, and probably know the names of the foreign editors and publishers so we can contact them personally. [...]

[...] I can only think at this writing [on the 14th] that we must do all we can to stop such practices by foreign publishers, or we’ll surely regret it deeply in the years to come. [...]

[...] Such a book will always be expressed through those invisible national characteristics that are so intimately involved with language—and obviously, were that not so; no book could be understood by someone of a foreign language. [...]

[...] There are other fascinations and foreign countries upon your planet, but it is good that you learn of those also. We will get you used to the idea of foreign lands and then we will teach you to travel into lands that are really foreign.... [...]

[...] There are other fascinations and foreign countries upon your planet, but it is good that you learn of those also. We will get you used to the idea of foreign lands and then we will teach you to travel into lands that are really foreign—and we will give you an idea of the vocabulary used—and it will not be as simple as “good morning” and “good evening” or “where can I find a can of beans?”

[...] Though he did not agree about your opinion of Prentice per se, involving the difficulty, he blamed the foreign publisher. He felt, however, that some of your own anger against the foreign publisher was directed at Tam. [...]

[...] He valued the relationship with Prentice (long pause), and he valued the idea of distributing the books in foreign lands, even if that venture meant misunderstandings or quite deliberate translations such as the shortening of one book, feeling that Prentice, while negligent, was not deliberately negligent, and that the situation would be righted and the material restored. [...]

[...] [Though not beginning with J and not of foreign extract.]

(“A foreign connection.” We thought the pepper, or object, itself, since it comes from foreign lands.

A foreign connection. [...]

In the Guyana affair, you had “red-blooded Americans” dying on a foreign shore (in South America), but not under a banner of war, which under certain circumstances would have been acceptable. [...] You had instead Americans succumbing in a foreign land to some beliefs that are peculiarly American, and home-grown.

[...] With some foreign element, it seems, connected with the word. [...]

[...] With some foreign element it seems, connected with the word.” [...]

[...] Thus the foreign element mentioned above.

[...] She is exotic and foreign, an old friend. [...]

[...] The lowest class of merchant dealing however with foreigners in a border town, an outpost.

A follower of Hay Chi-Chu (my phonetic interpretation) who was a combination outcast-commander and merchant for the foreigners who lived in the mountains; an outpost to the northwest, where it snowed severely in the wintertime.

[...] (Pause.) A father, a very old man, still living in a place that is foreign or far distant from the brothers. [...]

[...] With creative people, however, there are always intrusions, hints or clues from ways of thinking that certainly appear foreign, and creative people use those hints and clues to construct an art, a musical composition or whatever. [...]

(“And a foreign element of some kind.” Jane now said she thought this data somewhat distorted, and that by foreign she meant something new and strange to her, rather than literally out of the country. [...]

[...] And a foreign element of some kind.

[...] If you live in one country, you often consider natives in other areas of the world as foreigners, while of course they see you in the same light. [...]

Your ideas about foreign countries, allies and enemies, also have a vital role to play in how you handle your own bodily defenses. [...]

[...] He also said that the family had a strong foreign connection, though the name was not particularly foreign, and made some other remarks about the family’s history and members.

[...] (More than this, he let me use his real name, rather than hiding behind a pseudonym.) In his letter he said: In the session “I chose topics of conversation which were clearly of tolerable interest to Seth and considerable interest to me, and which by that time I had every reason to believe were largely foreign territory to Jane. [...]

[...] Our President’s main challengers for his office haven’t publicly criticized him, but neither have they defended him from foreign and domestic censure—and today our Secretary of State resigned in protest of the rescue mission. [...]

[...] We mourn the dead servicemen and wonder how many more Americans—military people and hostages—would have been killed had our commandos penetrated to the American Embassy compound, and the Iranian Foreign Ministry, in the heart of Tehran.