Let's change the subject. Yesterday, after having met Tom Levin, the American from Boston, who has taught me many things, I came to suppose that, at this moment, there develops in New York a kind of rip-off directed against us.
The one named Nicholson-Smith (cf. the letter that I addressed to you on 20 November[1]) wrote to me directly only four days ago. This person tells me that someone named Kwinter,[2] the editor of Zone Books, has "informed me that he has an agreement with Editions Gerard Lebovici concerning translation rights" and has tasked him with translating The Society of the Spectacle. And this same Nicholson-Smith asks me, what do I think? I smell a deception in the very strangeness of the question. Naturally, I have not responded.
Because he might press the point, I need to be immediately enlightened about these precise questions:
1) Is it true?
2) Or is it, on the contrary, the Englishman [Malcolm] Imrie from Verso [Books] who has finally acquired "the English-language rights" for The Society of the Spectacle in September or October 89? (And then he [Nicholson-Smith] would hope to tear from me a word or phrase that could be useful against him!)
I beg you to respond to me with extreme urgency.
Furthermore, I would like to pose to you several other questions that are much less urgent. I prefer to see you alone. Not being free right now, I propose that you come to dinner at my place Monday, 22 January, at 8 pm. The code is C369D.
Tell me if this suits you or if you would prefer a later date. With our regards,
GuyP.S. See the completely ridiculous propositions that the Parisian press now dares to make to me.[3]
[1] Translator's note: see letter dated 20 November 1989.
[2] Translator's note: Sanford Kwinter, a Canadian born academic.
[3] Bruno Gosset of the Quotidien de Paris wrote to Guy Debord on 11 December to invite him to express his "humor," "from time to time, when you desire," in "a column of two sheets (25 lines of 54 characters each), remuneration 500 francs."
(Published in Guy Debord Correspondance, Vol 7: Janvier 1988-Novembre 1994 by Librairie Artheme Fayard, 2008. Translated from the French by NOT BORED! December 2008. Footnotes by the publisher, except where noted.)