BUDGET FOR 1943-1944
For the coming year the Publications Committee requests a re-appropriation of
$5,000 for Corinth, Volume XII. For Hesperia Supplement VII, the Committee
requests a re-appropriat ion of $2,000. For the index volume to Hesperia I-X and
Hesperia Supplements I-VI che Committee requests a re-appropri ation of $4,000,
and for the journal Hesperia itself, rogether with overhead, the Committee requests
an appropriation of new money in the amount of $5,000. It will be observed here
chat there is no request made as yet for Mrs. Stillwell's volume on the Potters' Quarter
and no request is made for an appropriat ion to continue work on the index: volume,
the $4,000 listed above being the estimate of cost of publication only. It is the plan
of the Publications Committ ee tO carry on preparation of the volume in the manner
oudined in the earlier paragraphs of this report.
The war effort has also made itself felt in the work of the Committee because
of the necessity for it to turn in as scrap all half-cones and line-engravings for
which furore use is not assured. General Conservation Order M-99 of the War
Production Board gives a detailed set of regulations to govern the conversion of such
material to war purposes. Members of the Managing Committee will remember that
several years ago a large consignment of plates was imported from Germany repre
senting the stock of illustrati ons for books and numbers of Hesperia that had been
printed by Adolf H olzhausens Nachfolger in Vienna. Inasmuch as not all these
places will be used again, the Committee may console itself for the financial loss at
tendant upon the use of this material as scrap metal with the thought that some of it
will be sent back to Germany in another form. The process of sorting out the plates
to be used from those that are not to be used is very tedious and to date has been
about half accomplished. The members of the Publications Commi ttee have agreed
on a general policy of selection, and the Managing Committ ee may be assured that
the regulations of the War Production Board are being complied with in full just as
rapidly as our facilities for sorting the material permit.
The Publications Committee cannot close its report on the work of the past
year without making some general estimate of prospects for the furore. The amount
of publica tion in years just ahead will probably not be so great as in the two or three
years immediately past. On the other hand, there are certain fixed obligations which
the Committee hopes will always be met. The fuse of these is Hesperia, which by
general consent is now standardized as a volume of some four hundre d pages. The
contr ibutors to Hesperia will more and more in the next few years be distracted from
their academic obligations. It has already come about that much of the preliminary
arrangement of articles and even much verification of references has fallen to the
lot of the Managing Editor, since the authors themselves are in service and far re
moved from any chance to consult a proper library. It has become increasingly evi
dent also, during the past year, that the only way in which the Publications Com
mitte e will succeed in bringing to completion the index volume of Hesperia will be
38
to do the necessary ~ork ~ithin its own organization. This means that the greater
~art _of the prep~rau~n a gam will fall co the lot of the Managing Editor. The Pub
h~attons _Commmee JS of th: opinion that in the years ahead the Managing Editor
will conunue to h~ve the dunes of a full-time posicion in furthering the publications
of the School, takmg over where necessary many duties which might normally be
expected to fall upon the authors rather than upon the editor. The Committee ven
~res to make no prediction about the amount of work that will be possible when the
ume comes once more to re-open the School in Athens, or how it will be related to
past and present plans for School publication. There will be difficulties which one
can_noc now foresee, and i~ is quite possible that there will be changes in personnel
whtch may alter any establ!shed program. Bur the Committee feels nevertheless that
the w~rk of publicati~n w~ remain one of the first obligations of the School and
from Jts ?re~ent ex:per_tence ~~ feels convinced that this obligation can be met only by
the conu nwng actenu~n wht~h a permanent Managing Editor can best give co its
p~oble ms. In concludmg thts report the Committee wishes co emphasize the in
dtspensable narore of his duties to the scholarly work of the School.
Princeton, New Jersey
May 8,1943
39
Benjamin D. Meritt
Chairman