21

VAN SCHOONEVELD’S ADMINISTRATION AND MOUTON

MANUSCRIPT ROUTING Solicited Author responds positively Manuscript received by CHvS Manuscript editorially accepted, sent to Mouton, acknowledged by Mouton Mouton sends draft contract Author accepts Mouton sends definitive contract Signed contract received by Mouton Manuscript sent to printer Proofs sent to author, to CHvS Author proofs received by Mouton Editor’s copy received. 41

The system of assigning projects to separate files was very important for organizing material, as described on the following card: AUTHOR-SUBJECT CARD Whenever you receive a letter from either Mouton or an author indicating that there is a manuscript being offered, you make a new file for the author and also make out an author-subject card. You fill this out as follows: Under subject, you put the subject of the manuscript. If the subject is a literary work, put the author of the literary work as the subject in capitals, then put the name of the specific work this ms. deals with in lower case, after skipping a few spaces, e.g.- SUBJ: SHAKESPEARE the twelfth night If the subject is more or less a general linguistic thing, just write “Linguistics” as the subject. If you can’t figure out what it is or if it is so complicated, leave the subj. line blank. If the subject is two separate things, say two literary figures, make one card for the author’s file and two cards for the subject file and cross index them. 42 The enormous volume of mail had made systematic archiving of corre spondence necessary. In Mouton’s heyday, at the end of the sixties and the beginning of the seventies, there were enormous piles of Mouton mail on Van Schooneveld’s desk every day: ‘Tussen 20 en 30 binnenkomende brieven per dag. Op één ochtend was er eens een brief uit de binnenlanden van Afghanistan en een uit de binnenlanden van Bolivia. Toen heb ik gedacht: