Sir, Protests at the decision of the Oxford University Press to discontinue its poetry list (letters, November 25) are nothing more than another stanza in a long tradition.

Composers, painters, unpublished writers have ever advanced arguments, ranging from moral duty through to the suggestion that their works might indeed bring profit to the impresario, gallery owner or publisher with the courage to back them. And, in a few cases, history has proved them right.

Professor Fenton might rail (article, November 25), but the fact is that - typesetting and printing costs apart - a slim volume costs as much to produce as a fat one. The management and promotional overheads are identical. It seems that we either accept the view that OUP management have got it all wrong, or it is simply that poets expect their work to be published on a subsidised basis. I doubt that a respected and successful publisher such as OUP will be easily moved by either argument. At least they seem to have spared their poets the ultimate insult a publisher can offer - requiring the authors to pay the publishers.

What about the Internet?

Yours faithfully

ANSELM T. KUHN (Director), Finishing Publications Ltd, P O Box 70, Stevenage, Hertfordshire SG1 4DF.
finpubs@compuserve.com
November 25.