The Price of Love...

Is there an act of love that doesn't have, sooner or later, a price? Under the greatest of circumstances, the down side is having the person, or thing, that you adore come to a painful end, or an end of any sort; more commonly, one gives up, for the sake of love, other beloved things because you simply need to make a choice.

The creation of Proust Said That is a total labor of love on my part, and it does indeed have a price. Each issue takes at least 60 days in which I do not think, and haven't time to think, about material survival. By the time the issue has been printed and distributed, I have spent nearly a thousand dollars in reference materials, graphics, printing, postage, email communication and all the other small costs of putting it togetherfor under 300 print copies. After it has been distributed I will spend countless more hours responding to my email, sending issues out to new subscribers, corresponding with potential writers and searching for new topics to research and address. In short, Proust Said That is virtually a full-time job which I must pay to have. As one of my other favorite authors, Charles Bukowski, said: "it's damned pleasant to be an intellectual or a writer and to observe these niceties as long as your OWN ass is not in the wringer." Amen.

With this, the sixth issue, I have sat in the wringer six times. Thanks to the presence of PST on Netscape's "What's New" section on the Internet, this magazine has been read by no less than a quarter of a million people in the last six months. Lots of them have written to me to tell me how much they love it, and I have received amazing reviews, but very few people have sent me money. Yesterday I got a letter from someone asking me to send them a copy so they could decide whether or not they wanted to subscribe; it will cost me thirty-two cents to explain why I can't do that.

I have yet to turn up a foundation grant for which I qualify, or to find any private sponsors. So I must appeal to all of you readers who understand the cost of love; if you love this magazine, will you help? A little cash would be grand, a potential foundation connection splendid: advertising will be cheerfully accepted, although, having done ad sales for a magazine in the dim, dark past, I wouldn't try to peddle them. Anything over and above your charming letters of thanks and words of praise would do much to downsize the cost of love.

Subscriptions: IN CASH $8.00 for one year, two issues. One issue, $4.00.

Proust Said That PO Box 420436, San Francisco, CA 94142-0436

"Do you really find it necessary for writers to die of hunger?...without a doubt you also know the anecdote about Whistler's having several of the richest people in Europe for lunch. Enter bailiffs to attach his property. There were a great many unsold paintings there, a quarter of which would have sent the bailiff away, but none of the rich art-lovers thought of buying even the smallest grey and silver harmony..." -letter to Sidney Schiff Summer 1920

P Segal