[ilds] Question concerning authorship in the Carol and Graff (1990) intro to the Black Book

[Jacob Riley]

I was wondering if anyone knew who was the 'critic' that Durrell mentions in
the introduction to *The Black Book*. Durrell writes about a 'friendly
critic' who wrote to him (maybe Miller?)

"Yes, I admit that I was shocked and disgusted here and there, but I read it
without prejudice and in the light of the central intention. The crudities
match and belong. I have never understood why writers should not be regarded
by the reader as enjoying much the same rights as doctors. You do not
suspect indecency in a doctor who asks you to strip in order to examine you.
Why shouldn't you give the writer the same benefit of the doubt? As for your
novel--you can't have a birth without a good deal of mess and blood. The
labor pains, the groans, sounded quite genuine to me; I suppose because I
regard art as a serious business, and spiritual birth and something like the
analogy of the physical" (pg 15 in said edition)

--Jacob Riley
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