June 22, 2021

Dear Don,

Thank you for your letter. It came at an opportune time. Next Sunday, which will be my 91. birthday, I plan to send to Dr. Busch the file which I am translating, to find out what he thinks, and whether he wants me to continue.

Thank you for your criticisms. I endorse all of them. 

1) I have enlarged the print from 10 point to 12 point.  This change will fit the same number of characters on each page  as are in the copy of "Verstreut über alle fünf Kontinente" which is on the market.

2) I agree that it is difficult to the point of impossibility to keep track of the individuals mentioned in the text, of their relationships to each other, and of their history.  These difficulties flow from the attempt to construct a narrative which is based a) on a family tree, and b) on random quotations by members of that family tree about themselves and about others. Such a technique will produce at best a set of unrelated quaint vignettes, but it cannot result in a coherent text. However, Dr. Busch did not ask me to rewrite his book.  If he had, I don't think I would be able to do so.  He asked me to translate a text, which I am trying to do as best I can. I don't want to hurt his feelings.  I very much respect Dr. Busch's passionate dedication.  I want to do what I can to make him feel part of our family.

3) Moving the notes from the lower edge of each page to the end of the book should pose no technical difficulties.  I have no objections.  These notes are of three classes: 

a) notes that document the various official regulations and judicial decisions.  These notes should probably not be translated, so as not to compromise their usefulness for further research.

b) notes that illustrate or expand the text.  These notes should be translated.

c) notes explaining bureaucratic terms whose meanings would be lost in translation. Here in addition to the explanation in English, the original German text should be reproduced.

d) notes documenting data sources. These should be translated.

As of today, I have translated 119 of an estimated 300 12 point type pages.  77 or 65% of these pages are about my branch of the family.  The text about family branches other than my own, I have translated as simply and directly into colloquial English as I was able.  In translating the texts about my family and myself, I encountered specific difficulties:

a) I am unable to translate what Dr. Busch had written about me as if I derived my knowledge of myself from Dr. Busch's account.  I had to write as if I were telling my own story. I would have no objection if Dr. Busch, or perhaps even you yourself, took what I wrote, chopped it up, sprinkled it with quotation marks, and added statements such as "Meyer said: ...", "Meyer remembered ..." to make it fit more smoothly into the broader narrative.

b) I acknowledge that I wrote far too much about myself and my family.  I simply wrote down what came to mind. I have learned from experience that self-censorship is poison to creativity. It's easy to shorten a tale that's too long. It's impossible to restore what no longer exists.  

c) I've deliberately refrained from writing about various matters that are of importance to me, i) my marriage, ii) my relationships to family members still living, iii) my writing, iv) the litigation I have stubbornly pursued over the years, - although all of these as symptoms of an hypothetical PTSD, might be pertinent to the story that Dr. Bush is telling about us.

I attach the latest version of my translation file. Please feel no obligation to read it. 

Please give my regards to Jan, and accept them for yourself. 

Jochen