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A GREAT AND ENTHRALLING ADVENTURE

ms. ready to publish in Moscow: the complete works of Mandelstam. Problems with 15 & 16: whether Mouton will get in trouble for publishing or not. DR will ask cultural attaché. ROJ said they would make a sensation. CHvS thinks that he should talk it over with ROJ, the mechanics. 23 For a long time Mouton did the printing and binding of its own publica tions by itself on principle. The layout was also done in house by Adriaan Rehorst, a student of the German graphic artist Henri Friedlaender. The production time of an average work was about a year. Moreover the instruc tions of the publishing house were not the main task of the printing house, where in the sixties more than three hundred people worked. Mouton was and remained mainly a big printing house for external commissions. The company was known among other things for printing bank transfer cards for the PTT, the Dutch Post Office. Because of this giant job Mouton had constant work. The printing house was hit hard, so writes De Ridder in a let ter of May 23,1960 to Van Schooneveld, when the PTT from January 1,1960 on no longer had Mouton print all its bank transfer cards exclusively, but cut the order by half. 24 At that time there was internal tension at Mouton, when De Ridder, who disagreed with the president, Eekhout, considered going into business for himself. Jakobson got involved to help them settle their dif ferences. On September 30, 1966, Eekhout was supported by a financial adviser, J.H. Docter (see 111. 22), who originally worked for the American company Johnson’s Wax and was a novice in the international book business. Mouton had to start watching its finances writes De Ridder to Van Schooneveld in a letter of December 23,1966: ‘ [... ] er zijn de laatste jaren nogal wat financiële tekorten ontstaan, o.a. door de nieuwbouw, maar zeker ook door aangegane verplichtingen in de andere uitgeverijen’ 25 [‘... the last few years there have been quite a few financial shortfalls, among other things the rebuilding, but also the commitments of the other publishers [in the Edicom concern].’] The Paris subsidiary, located at Rue de Lille, 45, was the source of the loss es. This French part of Mouton had been established to publish works from the ‘École Pratique des Hautes Études’ (EPHE). These had to do primarily with the activities of the so-called sixth ‘section’, ‘Sciences économiques et sodales’. J.H. Docter’s letter of December 2, 1966 to Van Schooneveld gives us some information on the role of EPHE: ‘Normally we are constantly involved in the planning of sociology projects with the EPHE. [...] You sure-