DAVID VON PEIN SAID:
"Part 1018" of this series doesn't really qualify as a "JFK Assassination Argument" at all, but I wanted to post it here at my "JFK Archives" site anyway, mainly because I don't want to take the chance of losing this written material for a second time. You see, the following e-mail discussions are pieces of correspondence I thought I had lost years ago due to my previous computer's e-mail filing cabinet going AWOL after I had to change to a new computer. So I thought these e-mails concerning my lengthy review of Vincent Bugliosi's 2007 book, "Reclaiming History", had forever vanished into cyberspace somewhere.
But, as luck would have it, today (September 6, 2015) I came across this post that I wrote at The Education Forum in August of 2010. And in that post, I copied the text of the 2007 e-mail exchange reprinted below.
I was happy to see that these communications were not lost after all.
Here's the e-mail discussion in question....
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Subject: Link To My Review Of "Reclaiming History"
Date: 8/16/2007
From: David Von Pein
To: Starling Lawrence (W.W. Norton & Co., Inc.)
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Hello Mr. Lawrence,
Vincent Bugliosi's secretary (Rosemary Newton) wrote to me today and said that you wanted me to e-mail you regarding my extensive review that I've placed on the Internet for Mr. Bugliosi's book "Reclaiming History".
I've revised and updated the lengthy review a few times since originally posting it on June 20, 2007, adding more photos, which help to explain some of the text passages that I have used from the book.
I think the photos (and links to other articles) in the review add an extra layer of important information for people to evaluate, because they can see a particular picture or an animated Zapruder Film clip right next to a quote from the book itself that I have provided.
Here's the link to my book review [newer 2009 blog link provided below]:
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Subject: Re: Link To My Review Of "Reclaiming History"
Date: 8/16/2007 12:01:08 PM Eastern Daylight Time
From: Starling Lawrence
To: David Von Pein
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Dear Mr. Von Pein:
Well, I don’t think I have ever seen anything like this in my 38 years sitting in this chair, most of those years, of course, before such a “review” would be technically possible.
I’m certainly glad that you agree with Vince, for the most part, otherwise we’d be facing the situation of a huge excerpt (in effect) being used to beat up on the book. Still, this “review” in three parts could be construed as a serialization of the book, however informal, and I’ll have to take my colleagues’ temperature on it.
Can you tell me how many words you quote? In the meantime, let’s please hold off on any further use of quoted material from the book. I’ll get back to you soon.
Yours,
Starling Lawrence
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Subject: RE.: "Reclaiming History" Book Review
Date: 8/16/2007
From: David Von Pein
To: Starling Lawrence
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Hi Mr. Lawrence,
Thanks for the quick reply.
As I told Rosemary Newton by e-mail the other day, I have no intention of adding any MORE quotes from the book to my review. Absolutely not. If I edit anything else, it won't be to add any more quoted passages.
I'm not sure as to the exact number of words I've quoted from the book. But if you need a word count, I can start counting them.
[Quoting Mr. Lawrence from a previous e-mail:]
"P.S...by the way, I am not at all sure what the rights situation on all those photos is. I know that we paid pretty good money to get volume rights, but we certainly did not clear any electronic permissions, and I simply wouldn’t know if posting them on the internet constitutes some sort of infringement of the copyright on those photos."
[End Quote.]
The photographs were taken off of the Internet, from various sites which offer photos on their webpages.
But none of the photos in my review were scanned directly from the pages of "Reclaiming History". Zero. (I wouldn't know how to do that anyway.)
A few of the photos in the review do match some of the photos used in the book's two photo sections. But I didn't scan them from the book itself. The photos came directly from JFK websites, and they are pictures that can be viewed by anyone around the globe with Internet access.
I worked for quite a while on the review for Mr. Bugliosi's "Book for the Ages", and I'd like to think of the review as an appropriately large review for such a grandiose "book for the ages".
Also, I will add, it's a book I have been anxiously awaiting for many years now....and Vince doesn't disappoint, in my opinion.
And to hear Vince tell it on his radio interviews, I guess I should thank YOU, Star, personally for some of the large "scope" of "Reclaiming History"; because Vince relayed the story about you telling him to "not cut out anything" from the manuscript. In effect, leave it alone, regardless of its massive size. A good decision, too, in my opinion.
[2015 DVP Interjection — I didn't get the quote exactly right in my 2007 e-mail message. The precise words that Vince said Starling Lawrence used, which can be heard in this audio clip, were "I don't want you to take out a word".]
And, quite obviously, given the huge scope of Vince's tome (1.5-million words), the quotes from the book used in my review still only amount to a drop in the bucket when compared to the whole book's text (percentage-wise).
But, yes, I was a little concerned about getting some type of written permission for this particular review, due to its size...and due to the unusual situation that exists with "Reclaiming History", wherein that book does not provide the normal type of disclaimer at the front of the book, a disclaimer which usually says (in effect): "You can quote excerpts for a review".
I'm very proud of the review, and as I told Rosemary Newton (and Mr. Bugliosi, through Rosemary), it's my hope that such an in-depth review would make a few more people want to read the WHOLE book from start to finish. I certainly hope that would be the case for many readers anyway.
[...]
Thank you very much for your time. And thanks, most of all, for publishing "Reclaiming History". I've enjoyed it immensely (as you can probably already tell).
Best Regards,
David R. Von Pein
davevonpein@aol.com
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Subject: FW: Link To My Review Of "Reclaiming History"
Date: 10/16/2007 11:04:17 AM Eastern Daylight Time
From: Jessie Hughes
To: David Von Pein
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Mr. Von Pein,
Further to your correspondence with Starling Lawrence, while we would [not] normally consider such use of the text to be permissive, in this case we are willing to waive any rights we have in the text for such use and can confirm that we have no objection to your continued use [of] the text on your website within your review.
That said, we do not control the rights in any of the photos and therefore cannot speak to their use. You may wish to contact the rights holders of the photos to verify they have no objection to their use or seek licenses from said rights holders.
Regards -
Jessie Hughes
Jessie Hughes
Contracts Manager
W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.
500 Fifth Avenue
New York, New York 10110
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