Professor Pears was a Delegate of the Press in 1985, is a philosopher, and is listed in the minutes as having been present at the Delegates' meeting of 23rd July 1985.
Malcolm: I'm phoning you because I understand that in 1985 or thereabouts, which is the period I'm interested in, you were a Delegate of Oxford University Press.
Pears: Yes, I was. Who are you?
Malcolm: I am an author, or would-be author, by the name of Andrew Malcolm.
Pears: Yes.
Malcolm: Does that name ring a bell with you at all?
Pears: Well, I heard your name, but I don't, at this hour of the morning [9.00 a.m.] pick out any sort of memory.
Malcolm: Could I just try jogging it a moment, because what this is about is I wrote, and for years have been writing, a philosophical text that at the time I submitted it to OUP was called Making Names. Does that ring a bell with you?
Pears: Yes. I do remember the title and I do remember that it went to a reader.
Malcolm: It went to Alan Ryan, who was a Delegate also at the time.
Pears: Yes.
Malcolm: And he seemed to be very enthusiastic about it, somewhat to my surprise, as it was and is aimed at a general readership rather than an academic readership...
Pears: Which is much more difficult.
Malcolm: Yes, or much more easy, depending which way you look at it. He started waxing very enthusiastic about it and so did the editor who was handling it at the time, a Mr. Henry Hardy.
Pears: Oh, I see, it was for Opus Books, it was for the General List, it wasn't for the academic list?
Malcolm: It was for the General List, exactly so. A certain amount of water, not all very clean water, has gone under the bridge since then, and I'm trying to piece together exactly what happened at the time.
Pears: Ah. You mean you're asking me for information?
Malcolm: I'm just asking if you remember, as a Delegate, whether it ever came before you or was approved at a Delegates' meeting or anything like that.
Pears: That would be in the minutes, they'd tell you that, but of course we used to go through approving and rejecting thousands of books, so in actual fact I don't pick it up, but I do remember the title. What happens is, of course, that books on the General List are not taken one by one at Delegates' meetings. Every book on the Academic List has to be individually discussed. Books on the General List are discussed if the matter is raised by anybody, otherwise they, the decisions, tend to go through en bloc.
.........
Malcolm: He (Hardy) was threatened with the sack because, the claim made against him, correctly, was that he had committed the Press to its publication to me without having received the Delegates' approval to do so, without having got the go-ahead.
Pears: Yes, that's right, I mean it would have to go on a list.
.........
Pears: Have you talked to Alan Ryan about this?
Malcolm: Well again, Alan Ryan has declined to comment.
Pears: Mm. Yes, well I'm not doing that, I just don't remember the details. But I do remember the title of the book and I remember that it was under consideration for the General List. Of course what I don't know is what happened when it came back to the Delegates on the 23rd July. It'll be in the minutes though and I would have thought that Alan would tell you.
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