Douglas:
> I am a member of the Scottish Poetry Library and get their Newsletter and
I
> am sure that Duncan Glen is still active in the publishing area. I will
have
> to dig out the details for you. I think he has retired to Fife.
Sure. I'm not saying (oh, dear, I seem to have to keep correcting myself,
don't I?) that he gave-up publishing.
Indeed, in the wake of his closing-down _Akros_, the small-press side of his
head seemed to blossom. Wasn't his last teaching post the Chair of Visual
Arts somewhere in the Midlands? Did he retire from there to Fife?
But honest, I'm pretty sure on Akros-the-Magazine -- it's one of the two --
Lines Review was the other -- that I was a paid-up subscriber till they
died. So, somewhere on my shelves, I should have clean runs from the
mid-sixties to when-they-died.
Akros was always and never but Duncan, but Lines started with -- what was
his name?
Anyway, I began subscribing to both in the sixties, about the time you'd be
up The Hill.
For me, the Glory Years of Lines were when Robin Fulton was editing it.
I can say this with a totally straight face as RF wouldn't touch my work
with a barge pole. What I liked was he'd do short issues -- only three-five
poets. Magic. Enough poems to tune into and get your head round.
Where I got my publishing lock into Lines Review was when William Mongomerie
took over. Sure, Bill Mongomerie was totally barking mad, but he seemed to
like the way I wrote. So for a time, I could about guarantee that if I
submitted to Lines Review, I'd get published ...
Trouble was, no one who I respected would publish me ... I'd have sold my
eye teeth to have Robin Fulton publish me in Lines when he was editor. As
if ...
So my Lines Review Years were strictly when Bill Montgomerie was editing it.
Not before, not after.
But in all three cases, Akros, Lines, and Outposts, there was a funny
magazine/pamphlet split.
From my personal point of view, the worst was Lines.
Bloody hell, Callum McDonald +owned+ Lines.
Only he sold it. Exactly a month before I sent him _Pacts and
Conjurations_.
I got this plaintive letter from Callum saying (paraphrasing), "Robin, I
doorsteped the current directors, but no luck."
Ouch!!!
To be honest, I felt worse about the idea of Callum, in his seventies,
limping about Edinburgh on a stick trying to tout my book than not getting
published in Lines.
It wasn't that good a book, and Callum deserved a happy retirement.
Robin
> And I was checking some links this morning and took a look at the Scottish
> Poetry Library website and found that their Catalogue is now online. I
typed
> in your name and got 96 entries for you, including 5 reviews. I only have
a
> quarter of that.
Cor!!! I'm famous.
<g>
R2
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