http://www.cjr.org/issues/2006/1/lettertoeditor.asp Great, informative, exchange between Valerie Lawson, the author of a book on the creator of Mary Poppins (Pamela Travers) and The New Yorker. Lawson felt that a recent article about Poppins carried insufficient acknowledgement of her work, given that it contained many details about Travers that could only (Lawson says) have come from her research.
What seems to be the case is that: (a) The New Yorker did do more original research than Lawson had anticipated; (b) some of the facts uncovered by Lawson were subsequently repeated in documentaries, etc. about Travers, and not sourced in ways that made clear they were due to Lawson, and this made it possible the New Yorker to argue that they had alternative sources; and (c) overall, Lawson should have been given more credit. Anyway, all this is couched in extremely delicate and precise language (particularly that of the letters from The New Yorker, who necessarily needed to be more careful) that makes wonderful, fascinating reading.
(I don’t think Lawson should have sent the final letter for publication; it doesn’t seem to reflect her feelings about the matter, and now The New Yorker have her printed complaint reduced to what the CJR describes as a “relatively benign effort.”) 11:00
Delicious tags: journalism newyorker books poppins toread
