1954-06-17

17.vi.54

Dear Mr Petersen:

It is not easy to say Yes to your simple request. Every week someone asks me for a foreword or introduction, and the difficulty is not so much to find time for such things, but the fact that the currency of one's name becomes debased. I decided some years ago to stop (it is so invidious to make a choise), and though I have occasionally relented, it has always been a mistake. If my poor words can help your book, your publisher may quote them in his advertisements. But the book itself is the author's, and he needs no curtain-raiser.

That, at any rate, is how I feel about it. If you feel differently, you might still be able to convince me. In any case, the book has my good wishes.

Yours sincerely,

Herbert Read