“It was suggested by the late Alfred Knopf that books should be graded like eggs, and that publishing houses should not offer as First Class what they well know to be Fifth. But of course publishers cannot agree about standards for grading, and even if they could, writers would shriek like mandrakes uprooted if their work were sent into the world marked anything less than Strictly Fresh.”

A Voice from the Attic (1960)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "It was suggested by the late Alfred Knopf that books should be graded like eggs, and that publishing houses should not …" by Robertson Davies?
Robertson Davies photo
Robertson Davies 282
Canadian journalist, playwright, professor, critic, and nov… 1913–1995

Related quotes

James Blake photo

“He was over at my house every day between fifth grade and eighth grade.”

James Blake (1979) American tennis player

On his childhood relationship with John Mayer
From Outtakes with James Blake, June 23, 2003 issue of ESPN Magazine http://espn.go.com/talent/danpatrick/s/2003/0609/1565617.html

Jasper Fforde photo
Ray Bradbury photo

“We must not let them go into the fourth and fifth grades not knowing how to read.”

Ray Bradbury (1920–2012) American writer

The Paris Review interview (2010)
Context: Our education system has gone to hell. It’s my idea from now on to stop spending money educating children who are sixteen years old. We should put all that money down into kindergarten. Young children have to be taught how to read and write. If children went into the first grade knowing how to read and write, we’d be set for the future, wouldn’t we? We must not let them go into the fourth and fifth grades not knowing how to read. So we must put out books with educational pictures, or use comics to teach children how to read. When I was five years old, my aunt gave me a copy of a book of wonderful fairy tales called Once Upon a Time, and the first fairy tale in the book is “Beauty and the Beast.” That one story taught me how to read and write because I looked at the picture of that beautiful beast, but I so desperately wanted to read about him too.

Vasily Grossman photo

“We should not underestimate the harm it would bring should it be published.”

Vasily Grossman (1905–1964) Soviet writer and journalist who originally trained as an engineer

1960s

Erwin Rommel photo
Robert M. Pirsig photo
Steve Martin photo

“Yeah, well, we're all writers, aren't we? He's a writer that hasn't been published, and I'm a writer who hasn't written anything.”

Steve Martin (1945) American actor, comedian, musician, author, playwright, and producer

Source: Picasso at the Lapin Agile and Other Plays

“All that is thought should not be said, all that is said should not be written, all that is written should not be published, and all that is published should not be read.”

Menachem Mendel of Kotzk (1787–1859) Polish rabbi

As quoted in Triumph of Survival : The Story of the Jews in the Modern Era 1650-1995‎ (1993) by Berel Wein, p. 96

Related topics