35

MOUTON BOUGHT UP BY WALTER DE GRUYTER

Van Schooneveld tries to interest Bornkamp at this time in the old Chardziev project: If this project could still be done, it would obviously be a sensation [...]. At the time of the negotiations, I brought to The Hague a number of metal cliché’s which had been smuggled out of the Soviet Union to America, which were of Malevitch paintings. As a matter of fact, I negotiated also with Xardziev (the art specialist in Russia) for a photographer to be flown in from Holland to make color pictures for further clichés. [...] The Herde[r]straat experimented with printing from those cliché’s in 1973-1974. 76 He adds that he does not know what has happened to the materials since. After the sale of the publishing company to De Gruyter in 1977 and until the beginning of the 1980s, there were sparsely manned Mouton offices at Noordeinde 41 in The Hague and (probably somewhat longer) in Amsterdam (Suite 141, Rivierstaete, Amsteldijk 166). Manager Bornkamp left Mouton Publishers in January 1982. He was succeeded by the German Germanist Dr. Stefan Grunwald, author of some poetry albums published in English. These events led to the total absorption of Mouton, which was actually in a moribund condition since 1977, into the German publishing company. Assumedly, the Mouton office at Noordeinde existed until March 1,1982. The employee Judy Marcure (who worked there since 1978) writes to Van Schooneveld in an undated letter that she would work for Mouton until March 1, 1982. She adds: T will do my best to see that the material which is transferred to Berlin is in a reasonable state.’ 77 In her letter dated February 22,1982 she writes Van Schooneveld that this letter is her last. 78 At that time Mouton remainders became available for bargain prices: at the Thursday Voorhout book market in The Hague, one could find a whole stall with Mouton publications, at which each book sold for the price of one guilder, irrespective of the book. Earlier Mouton publications had already started to belong to the trusted picture of the De Slegte antiquarian book stores. Nevertheless, a large part of the stock from the Mouton warehouse in Nuenen, where the Mouton shipping department operated, was shipped to Germany. At the Nuenen post office, from which the majority of the parcels were sent, the departure of Mouton would certainly have been felt. In retrospect, the acquisition of Mouton gave De Gruyter its breakthrough onto the international publishing scene. Anne Katrin-Ziesak paints this acquisition this way: