Gitlitz & Davidson's Pilgrimage Road to Santiago

[davidson]

Well, my ears are sure hot !! Thanks for all the nice comments about our book.
It does appear to serve a purpose in the US.
About the discussion about what can be done to make the book more accessible,
:

St. Martin's Press -- our publisher -- is fairly clear about what it needs to
do and what it is willing to do vis a vis publishing and making a profit.

* David & I actually originally suggested that the book be published
originally in a three ring binder, but were voted down quickly. An untypical
format == higher cost.

* Rosina's suggestions about pulling one copy apart and mailing ahead is
probably the most useful aspect, although there are those last appendix pages
with the biographies and art information that would have to go along.

* Palm top computer format? probably not for another several years, and by
then I suspect a completely renovated edition. So many things seem to be
changing on the Road.

* Other language translations? We are _eager_ for them, but, again St.
Martin's Press is the publisher. Their "foreign rights" division is in charge
of contacting publishers elsewhere (Barcelona, for example) and encouraging
them to consider a spanish translation. So far, the answers have been
noncommital or negative. The responses for at least 3 Spanish publishers have
been along the lines of this: We already have the Spanish translation of
Shirely MacLaine's book and that's enough "American" for us. Besides, what can
2 Americans tell us about _our_ pilgrimage Road ?

[Now, I could answer that, but the reality is that there are so many books
about the Road by French, German, Italian, American, British, and, oh yes,
Spanish authors, that it is completely understandable that the Spanish
publishing world would be reluctant to undertake the costs involved in the
translation and publishing of another handbook. I'm not even sure if -- after
about 100 letters to Spanish bookstores -- that it is even for sale in Spain
-- has anyone seen it there? ]

[It's still a difficult procedure for Maryjane Dunn Whitener and me to remind
people in Spain that we've been working on pilgrimage topics for nearly 2
decades and that, yes, we have published things, like a 2970 item annotated
bibliography. Even though we've sent free copies of the bibliography to all
the "important" folks. That's my pet peeve, obviously.]

It's not that David and I* can't translate it. It's that St. Martin's owns the
book and has exclusive rights to publishing it, or signing agreements for its
publication in another language, and so far Spanish companies are not
interested. We're still having the same difficulty with our other book,
_Drizzle of Honey_, which has won 2 international awards and is about Hispanic
medieval Sephardic cooking, a fairly "hot" topic right now.


--The Junta de Castilla y Leon is just about to publish the Spanish=language
translation of David's (1996) book: _Secrecy and Deceit: The Religion of the
Crypto-Jews._ It took several years to arrange for a publisher and a couple
more to get it translated. It is a long term and costly project for any
publishing company.

So, things run very slowly with regard to translations and republications. we
try to be patients (grrr; not always easy). And we thank you for all your
support and interest. For the moment, then, all I can say is that Rosina has
the most feasible idea.

Well, I've sure aired my disgruntlement, but I hope you all can understand why
I can't get the book in any other form in any other language yet.

Linda D