"Kim Stanley Robinson - A History Of The Twentieth Century" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robinson Kim Stanley)

it out in time for the turn of the century, and go oversize, use lots
of
illustrations, big print run-"
"A coffee table book?"
"People'll want it on their coffee tables, sure, but it's not-"
"I don't want to write a coffee table book."
"Frank-"
"What do they want, ten thousand words?"
"They want thirty thousand words, Frank. And they'll pay a hundred
thousand pound advance."
 That gave him pause.
"Why so much?"
"They're new to publishing, they come from computers and this is the
kind
of numbers they're used to. It's a different scale."
"That's for sure. I still don't want to do it."
"Frank, come on, you're the one for this! The only successor to Barbara
Tuchman!" That was a blurb found on paperback editions of his work.
"They
want you in particular - I mean, Churchill on the twentieth century, ha
ha. It's a natural."
"I don't want to do it."
"Come on, Frank. You could use the money, I thought you were having
trouble with the payments-"
"Yeah yeah." Time for a different tack. "I'll think it over."
"They're in a hurry, Frank."
"I thought you said turn of the century!"
"I did, but there's going to be a lot of this kind of book then, and
they
want to beat the rush. Set the standard and then keep it in print for a
few years. It'll be great."
"It'll be remaindered within a year. Remaindered before it even comes
out,
if I know coffee table books."
His agent sighed. "Come on, Frank. You can use the money. As for the
book,
it'll be as good as you make it, right? You've been working on this
stuff
your whole career, and here's your chance to sum up. And you've got a
lot
of readers, people will listen to you." Concern made him shrill: "Don't
let what's happened get you so down that you miss an opportunity like
this! Work is the best cure for depression anyway. And this is your
chance
to influence how we think about what's happened!"
"With a coffee table book?"
"God damn it, don't think of it that way!"
"How should I think of it."
His agent took a deep breath, let it out, spoke very slowly. 'Think of
it