"C M Kornbluth - The Cosmic Charge Account" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kornbluth C M)

He thanked me coldly, I congratulated him coldly, I pocketed the rat while he shuddered and we went
on with the conversation.



I told him how, eighteen months ago, Mr. Hopedale called me into his office. Nice office, oak panels,
signed pictures of Hopedale Press writers from our glorious past: Kipling, Barrie, Theodore Roosevelt
and the rest of the backlog boys.



What about Eino Elekinen, Mr. Hopedale wanted to know. Eino was one of our novelists. His first,
Vinland The Good, had been a critical success and a popular flop; Cubs of the Viking Breed, the sequel,
made us all a little money. He was now a month past delivery date on the final volume of the trilogy and
the end was not in sight.



"I think he's pulling a sit-down strike, Mr. Hopedale. He's way overdrawn now and I had to refuse him a
thousand-dollar advance. He wanted to send his wife to theVirgin Islandsfor a divorce."



"Give him the money," Mr. Hopedale said impatiently. "How can you expect the man to write when he's
beset by personal difficulties?"
"Mr. Hopedale," I said politely, "she could divorce him right here inNew YorkState. He's given her
grounds in all five boroughs and the western townships ofLong Island. But that's not the point. He can't
write. And even if he could, the last thing American literature needs right now is another trilogy about a
Scandinavian immigrant family." "I know," he said. "I know. He's not very good yet.



But I think he's going to be, and do you want him to starve while he's getting the juvenilia out of his
system?" His next remark had nothing to dcTwith EleMnen. He looked at the signed photo of T.
R.—"To a bully publisher—" and said: "Morris we're broke."



I said: "Ah?"



"We owe everybody. Printer, papermill, warehouse. Everybody. It's the end of Hopedale Press.
Unless—I don't want you to think people have been reporting on you, Norris, but I understand you came
up with an interesting idea at lunch yesterday. Some Swiss professor."



I had to think hard. "You must mean Leuten, Mr. Hopedale. No, there's nothing in it for us, sir. I was