Dear Giedroyc, please excuse me for not answering your letter for so long. There are many physical and non-physical reasons. I will be very happy to provide you with the manuscript of V.T. Shalamov. He needs to be published. However, there is a “but.” I have two different manuscripts both of which are on very heavy Xeroxes and weigh a hundred pounds! But that is not an obstacle, after all. The obstacle is this: Shalamov’s short stories that have appeared in Novyi Zhurnal have been edited by me, sometimes rather heavily. One should not publish his short stories WITHOUT the edits, that would not be good. To translate them directly from the manuscript would not be good either. I do not know how to go about it. Of course, you can take all the short stories that have been printed in Novyi Zhurnal, but they are too few for a book. In the June issue, I will print some more of his short stories (from the new, second manuscript). So there will be more of them then. Think about all these situations and conditions and write to me. Of course, Novyi Zhurnal does not ask for any fee, etc. I will be VERY happy if they come out in Polish. I am trying to push some Russian publishers here, but they are still hesitating. While he NEEDS to be published.
