FOR sale: poets and their poems. As the fallout continues from last week's decision by the Oxford University Press to close its poetry list and drop its 50 poets, the market is responding quickly.
Prices are cheap, it emerged yesterday. A job lot of the backlist of the 50 poets was reportedly being touted around for as little as £50,000. But as it became clear that few publishers would want to buy the rights to a poet's already-published work without the right to publish new work, the backlist was split up. Now, many of the better known poets have signed with publishers who have a track record in poetry, such as Bloodaxe, Faber & Faber, and Picador. Craig Raine, D J Enright and Sean O'Brien have found new homes.
O'Brien, a past winner of the T S Eliot prize, was bitter. "I'm lucky in that I have other options, but that isn't the case for everybody." He added: "They've distorted the historical record. If the work of certain authors is lost for several years, that will be to the disadvantage of readers and scholars." The result of the closure said O'Brien, was an outbreak of bidding. "It's the ambulance-chasing approach to publishing."
Other publishers are aghast. Matthew Evans, chairman of Faber, suggested the decision dented the OUP's credibility. "How is it possible for the OUP to shoot itself in the head and both feet at the same time? For a company of the OUP's size and standing to take a decision like this is preposterous, and they've got the bad publicity they deserve. On paper the poetry section makes a loss but it takes up few resources and gives them great prestige."
A spokeswoman for the OUP thought it might be honouring contracts it had signed to publish some collections next year. Among projects thought to be forthcoming are a 70th birthday tribute to Peter Porter, and Joy Shapcock's (sic) My Life Asleep. Shapcock's collection is already a strong contender for the T S Eliot prize, to be announced in February. It seems likely the collection could make the shortlist and attract publicity and extra sales without copies being available.
The lack of attention to the poetry list, say some observers, justifies OUP's decision to offload it. "What's the point of them having a poetry list and not doing it properly?" asked agent David Godwin. "The money's so piddling I'm sure the OUP would be glad to have someone take it off their hands." OUP's poetry list, administered by a part-time editor, had an annual turnover of just £28,000. The company's annual turnover is £300 million. But the "piddling" nature of the money involved makes a mockery of the OUP's reasons for closing the list.
"There's no point in doing it unless it's going to allow a reasonable dividend to go back to the original owners, who are the university," said the OUP's Andrew Potter last week. The OUP might have done better to look at the perils involved in its English-as-a-foreign-language teaching texts, which incurred substantial losses as the "Asian flu" hit its key markets this year. But the talk of profits and economic restructuring is of little consolation to the poets involved. D J Enright said: "I'm too old for this, it's so disheartening. It's the worst side of the modern world, this childish enthusiasm for the bottom line, that everything must pay its way."