Maleficium Intra Muros, or Keep Your Paws Off My Stuff

Abstract

When I read William W. Savage's column, 'The Transom,' in the April 2005 issue, I stopped dead in my tracks. Dejavu, I said to myself, as I took in 'Maleficium Intra Muros,' in which Dr Savage tells the story of a young scholar who, in good faith, approached a prominent university press to propose a new edition of a long- out-of-print volume. 1 That young scholar, one might say in more colloquial terms, got royally screwed by the press in question. The press said, nice idea, then, no thanks, we don't want your intro, but how 'bout a few pages of biographical material? Sure enough, come publication time, the volume did not credit the young scholar for his work, and, to add insult to injury, another big-name scholar had provided the introduction. No, this doesn't happen all the time, Dr Savage points out. No doubt there are more editors out there with loads of integrity who make up for the creeps who pull stunts like this one. Good thing, too. But when it happens to you, you think, how can this be - and then, more realistically, you think: Once bitten, twice shy. A version of the story Dr Savage tells happened to me, although the context was slightly different. I didn't approach a university press with an idea for a new edition. I was, at the time, reviewing a lot of books for a variety of publications. One of those was a venerable review organ in Canada that I won't deign to name. But I had been reviewing for it for seven or eight years, and had what I thought were solid, friendly relationships with the editors - ones based in integrity. I was also, at the time, finishing up the final class for my doctoral coursework. The course was one I had constructed with a well- reputed professor of journalism at another university. We were allowed to do this from time to time: be supervised in a study of our