[MD] New UK edition of LILA

[David Harding]

Ant McWatt wrote:
> Dear All,
> 
> This September Alma Books are republishing LILA in the UK.  It is often 
> forgotten that LILA was a 1992 Pulitzer fiction finalist despite its 
> reputation as just being a rather depressing romantic novel filled with 
> �intellectual digressions�.  Even without being published in the UK for 
> years, Pirsig�s second text has still sold nearly 800,000 copies (not 
> exactly a failure for a philosophy book - compare that to the fifty 
> years it took John Hospers �Introduction to Philosophical Analysis� to 
> sell just over 150,000 copies.  A figure which Hosper�s publishing 
> company thought was well worth advertising on the 21st century cover of 
> his text!).
> 
> Alma is an independent publisher with an appropriate reputation for 
> producing high quality books.  Their manifesto emphasizes that �alma,� 
> Spanish for �soul,� is an apt name �for a company that regards a book as 
> an aesthetic artefact rather than as a mass-produced commodity.� 
> Alessandro Gallenzi, who founded Alma, underlines that a small publisher 
> can focus properly on every step of production so this new UK edition of 
> LILA should be an improvement not only on the Random House paperback 
> (the only edition of LILA presently available) but even on the 1991 
> Bantam Press hardback.
> 
> Anyway, my congratulations to the Pirsigs and their busy publishing team 
> at Pollinger.  Possibly, LILA was ahead of its time in 1991 but in this 
> age where we increasingly need to develop a more Dynamic inclusive 
> culture, maybe its time has finally come.  We shall see.  For anyone who 
> would like a preview of the new cover, it can be seen at 
> www.pollingerltd.com/news/index and at robertpirsig.org.
> 
> Chin, chin!
> 
> Anthony
> 

A butterfly? It's always puzzled me as to why Pirsig doesn't make his own covers. His books ARE about art and creativity.  Of course the standard answer is he simply doesn't want to make his own 
covers as most authors don't, we haven't heard of him doing any graphic arts, and so why should he?  But this *is* a book on Metaphysics.  If your going to do something yourself, Metaphysics related 
activities are the times to do it. Thoughts anyone?

-David.