These are fun insights into the hit and miss tastes of the publishing biz. For example, from the article, "A Bear Called Paddington by Michael Bond, 28 August 1957":
I think the author has missed his mark in this story of a bear adopted by a middle-class family called Brown. Unless I mistake him he means it to be funny but the jokes are all on the bear; the Browns treat him very much as I imagine they would treat a "foreigner" and as one’s sympathies and affections are all with the bear it is difficult to laugh with the author. Moreover the Brown family are perfect fools, they leave him alone to bath and nearly to drown; they twice lose him, once on the Underground and once in a large store simply through inattention. No – frankly the best of the book lies in its title.
I kinda feel F&F's department of humour kinda had a very rigid pole up its ass. I bet they were kicking themselves after this went on to be published initially by Collins in '58.
I am frightfully sorry about the printers’ prurience! Do please, when you are correcting proofs, replace f— by fucking in full; and David Bland, our production manager, will get in touch with the printers personally to make sure that nothing goes wrong.
Nothing better than an editor who literally gives a fuck!
The letter reminded me of David Lodge's afterword to "Ginger, You're Barmy". When it was first published in 1962, he had to bowdlerize the swear words that were copious in a novel set in the army. A second edition was published later, when the word in question was deemed printable, and initially Lodge went through his manuscript restoring "fuck" after "fuck", until he finally thought better of the idea and left the manuscript in the initially published form.
I think the author has missed his mark in this story of a bear adopted by a middle-class family called Brown. Unless I mistake him he means it to be funny but the jokes are all on the bear; the Browns treat him very much as I imagine they would treat a "foreigner" and as one’s sympathies and affections are all with the bear it is difficult to laugh with the author. Moreover the Brown family are perfect fools, they leave him alone to bath and nearly to drown; they twice lose him, once on the Underground and once in a large store simply through inattention. No – frankly the best of the book lies in its title.
I kinda feel F&F's department of humour kinda had a very rigid pole up its ass. I bet they were kicking themselves after this went on to be published initially by Collins in '58.