Sir, - The travails of Sydney Bernard Smyth (November 21st) in trying to have his plays performed, his poetry published and his letters acknowledged are not unique to any man or woman of letters.
Despite the so-called New Irish Renaissance in the arts, it is probably now more difficult for the unknown author to get his or her written work into print. This is, I believe, due to a number of factors:
(a) a small number of full-time writers, poets and playwrights dominate the literary scene and they belong to different warring camps, each with its own hangerson, who promote one and denigrate the other.
(b) Official "arts" sponsorship by Government-funded bodies has tended to favour "politically correct" notions of our cultural heritage.
(c) The disappearance of the leisurely amateur who held down a full-time job as a teacher, bank official or civil servant and devoted his/her free time to scribbling verse, short stories and novels.
(d) Women's literary groups have divided the world of letters into "them" (nasty mediocre chauvinist males) and "us" (oppressed, gifted females).
(e) Intense competition in the publishing world. Publishers want to shift books in supermarkets and points of mass sales, on the Internet or in ever bigger megabookstores.
However, not all of the above points can excuse the downright bad manners of publishers who fail to acknowledge the receipt of a poem, a short story, novel or play. No government can legislate for this state of affairs - but it does rather indicate that there is something rotten in the Irish literary world of today. - Yours, etc., Bernard O'Grady,
Santana, Sao Paulo, Brazil.