Mitchell Kaplan, Books & Books

December 26, 2008

Mitchell Kaplan
Books & Books
265 Aragon Avenue
Coral Gables, Florida 33134 - 5008

Mr. Kaplan,

I read of your 1974 introduction to Kentucky hospitality in today’s Miami Herald Weekend.

If only our conversation in your store in 1996 had lasted longer than 45 seconds I could have confirmed that. I spent 12 years in the coal mining business in eastern Kentucky. They were good, caring people who were hospitable to a fault. And they sure loved their guns, didn’t they?

It’s been 12 years since our only conversation. It seems like yesterday to me.

I was in the poetry section of your marvelous store where I was attended to by a well read sales lady. What was most impressive about her was that knowledge of poetry went beyond Rod McKuen.

I asked her where Ezra Pound was located.

“We don’t carry him,” she said.

“Why not?” I asked.

“Ask him,” she said, pointing to you.

I asked you why there was no Pound.

You told me he was an anti-Semite and that you would not stock any books by or about him.

One of the joys of ownership is that you can do what you want.
One of the joys of being a buyer is that you don’t have to.

For 12 years I have listened to you carry on about freedom of speech. For 12 years I have watched as other people speak highly of your regard for freedom, particularly as a champion of free speech. 12 years ago, in typical modern American Liberal fashion, you demonstrated that you principles were eclectic. “Free Speech for Me but not for Thee” as Nat Hentoff says. For 12 years you have been the poster boy for “non-malodorous fecal matter”.

Now, thanks to the frontier pushing of Governor Blago, the charming Mrs. Governor Blago, and Rahmbo Oh come Oh come Emmanuel I have found the word to describe your “speech is free…almost” position.

BULLSHIT

I was going to use strange language YES like James Joyce but you never would have read him because YES Ezra Pound edited him. I was going to toss in a few lines from Yeats but since Ezra Pound edited him he would be verboten to you. Ditto for Hemingway.

Did you know Ezra Pound was never arrested, never arraigned, never tried, and never convicted of anything? He was locked up for 13 years in a loony bin in a prequel to Camp Gitmo. Alas, you couldn’t have known that, could you?

Anyway, as my aunt from Hester Street used to say, “Don’t piss on my back and tell me it’s rain”.