David Irving

[Photo by Michael Hentz, for The New York Times]

Letter to Herbert Mitgang of
The Chicago Tribune

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London, April 23, 1996

I AM SO SORRY that you never got the chance to review my book Goebbels. Mastermind of the Third Reichin the media (although perhaps even now you may, as there is a much larger US publisher waiting in the wings who has asked about rights in the work). I respect your views, and well remember the horror with which Alan Williams, my editor at Viking, said, as he picked me up at Idlewild in 1977, "Herbert Mitgang has trashed the book in the NYT ." (Title Springtime for Hitler, if I recall). You are the Clive Barnes of the literary profession: a scourge, but always entertaining to read.

Having said that, may I plead for an open mind when you read Goebbels ? I will send you the proper book by separate mail, with my compliments, if you,will give me an address; the illustrations particularly are worth studying. I feel as though I have been sandbagged by St Martin's Press -- having first been subjected to a mugging by the masked (i.e., anonymous) critics of PW , Kirkus , and the Library Journal . -- Incidentally, did you really speak with me here in 1977? Or was that poetic licence? I have no recollection of having met you whatever, and more's the pity, as they say.

Yours faithfully,
David Irving

© Focal Point David Irving 1998