English-speaking contact at dead doctor's publisher?

From: "Michele Thompson" <thompsonc2@southernct.edu>

Subject: Re: [Vsg] English-speaking contact at dead doctor's publisher?

Date: Tue, 15 Aug 2006 17:34:06 -0400

Dear Dan,

According to Lady Borton's post a few months ago The Gioi will be bringing out an English language version, and as I understand it Harmony has the English publication rights for the US. I don't have the name of a specific editor at either place.

cheers

Michele

On Aug 15, 2006, at 5:09 PM, Dan Duffy wrote:

Hi, a third-country publisher just wrote to me asking for an English-speaking rights contact at the publisher of the diary of the dead doctor.

I have no business interest in this matter beyond performing a professional courtesy. I can't spend much time on it, I have no live contacts in VN, and the authors involved are a complex bunch.

If you've got a name and email of a business person, please let me know.

Dan

From: "harry aveling" <haveling@hotmail.com>

Date: Sat, 19 Aug 2006 11:20:58 +1000

Subject: [Vsg] Dr Dang Thuy Tram's publisher

Following Michele's post, here is the complete letter from Lady Borton.

I used some of the Texas Tech translation recently while teaching a course in Translation Studies at the University of Indonesia in Jakarta. The students found it quite moving.

Harry

__________________________________________________

Dear friends,

I'm aware that some members of the VSG group have expressed interest in /The Diary of Dang Thuy Tram/ and have noticed that mis-information is circulating.

Let me make some corrections and give you the basic facts.

A CD scan of /The/ /Diary of Dang Thuy Tram/ came into my hands last March (2005) kindness of a veteran friend, Ted Engleman, who asked if I could find the family. He'd received the CD from Fred and Rob Whitehurst, both veterans of the war in Viet Nam. Fred and Rob had carefully harbored the original diary for 35 years while they looked for the writer's family. The brothers gave a workshop on the diary at Texas Tech. Ted attended the workshop and, since he was headed next to Ha Noi, brought a CD to me here.

Ted knew the page in the diary that lists the names and work addresses of Dang Thuy Tram's parents, as of 1970. We popped the CD into a computer and found the addresses. My Vietnamese colleague, Anh, did the phoning (her Ha Noi accent would be more effective on a "cold call" than my American accent). Anh soon discovered that the father was deceased and the mother had retired. This seemed to be a dead-end.

I suggested that Anh call back and see whether the name of Dang Thuy Tram's mother was on the list for her institute's annual Tet party. Being of retirement age myself, I'm pleased to be invited to some of these parties at Tet. I often say that Ha Noi is Viet Nam's largest village. Indeed, Anh phoned back and soon discovered that Dang Thuy Tram's mother and sister live across our street and half way down the block.

A week or so later, Mme. Doan Ngoc Tram and two of her daughters came to visit. By then, they knew that I had worked in Quang Ngai Province during the war at the same time as Dang Thuy Tram and that I am Dang Thuy Tram's age. They also knew that I had done original historical research, translations of memoirs and journals, and had written books about Viet Nam. During our conversation, I explained that I had not looked at the diary (except to find the names and work address) while it was in my possession because I considered it a private document.

However, I did say that the diary would be a rare primary historical document and, as such, was probably unlike any letters the family had received from Dang Thuy Tram and unlike anything they had read in the press at that time. By then, of course, all three of the Tram family visitors had read the diary; they nodded in agreement. I suggested they think about publishing the diary because it would lift up many voices now lost. In some way, it seemed to me, the diary would be a story familiar to the many Vietnamese who lived their own versions of those years yet would likely carry a reality and veracity never before in readers' hands.

The family took a month to decide about publication. Nxb. Hoi Nha Van (Writers Association Publishing House) brought out /Nhat ky Dang Thuy Tram /(The Diary of Dang Thuy Tram) in July 2005. If a book in Viet Nam sells 3,000 copies, it is considered a best seller. To date, /Nhat ky Dang Thuy Tram / has sold 366,000 copies. All proceeds have gone to support health care for impoverished children and adults as a continuation of Dr. Dang Thuy Tram's work and vision.

The original hand-written diary is the property of Mme. Dang Ngoc Tram, mother of Dang Thuy Tram. It is on *_temporary_* loan to the Vietnam Archive at Texas Tech University. The family members hope that the diary will be returned soon to them here in Viet Nam. *_All_* rights (publication in print or electronically, translations, film, TV, radio stage, etc.) to the diary belong to Mme. Dang Ngoc Tram. Those rights are not shared with any other individual or with any institution.

As I mentioned, the two brothers who took care of the diary had tried for thirty-five years to find the family. Rob Whitehurst translated the diary into English. The brothers hoped to use the proceeds from an English-language edition to provide health care for impoverished children and adults as a continuation of Dr. Dang Thuy Tram's work and in her honor. For this reason and for many other reasons, the people of Viet Nam have a special love and respect for Fred and Rob Whitehurst. Their story is known everywhere across this country.

Last August, Fred and Rob visited the Tram family in Ha Noi and went with the Tram family to Duc Pho, the district in Quang Ngai Province where the diary is set. In October, the Tram family (Dang Thuy Tram's mother and her three younger sisters) visited the Whitehurst brothers and their mother in the U.S. A web search will find American and Vietnamese press coverage of both visits.

Rob's English translation based on the hand-written original is on the Web and will be published in book form in Ha Noi this April. It is itself a historical document, for it fueled the two brothers' search for the family of Dang Thuy Tram. The feeling (and stamina!) Rob brought to the hand-written text embodies the extraordinary friendship that has blossomed between these two families and between the two brothers and the people of Viet Nam.

As has been noted on the VSG list-serve, I am finishing up an annotated English translation of the hand-written original with assistance from Dang Kim Tram, Dang Thuy Tram's sister. That translation will provide historical and cultural context, in much the same way as the annotations for my translations of General Vo Nguyen Giap's /Dien Bien Phu: Rendezvous with History/ and Dr. Le Cao Dai's /The Central Highlands: A North Vietnamese Journal of Life on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, 1965-1975./

Thus, on 30 April, we expect to have two English versions, both published in Ha Noi by Nxb. Hoi Nha Van (Writers Association Publishing House). Proceeds from both books will be used to continue the work of Dr. Dang Thuy Tram. Meanwhile, translations of /Nhat ky Dang Thuy Tram /into Romanian, French, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, Italian, Korean, and Swedish are in process, all with permission from the copyright holder, Mme. Dang Ngoc Tram.

I will add one final note, again, that it was easy to find the family of Dang Thuy Tram because of the special Vietnamese custom whereby each office honors retirees as well as staff and special friends with a party at Tet. Knowledge of that custom led us quickly to our neighbors, the Tram family. And so, in the tradition of Tet, let me wish each of you in the wider neighborhood of Vietnamese Studies the best of health, prosperity, and success in all your endeavors during the coming Year of the Dog,

Warmly,

Lady Borton

Ha Noi

From: Judith A. N. Henchy

To: Vietnam Studies Group

Cc: Maxner, Steve

Sent: Thursday, August 24, 2006 5:04 PM

Subject: Re: [Vsg] Dr Dang Thuy Tram's publisher - Update

Dear Listers,

I received this message off-list from Steve Maxner at Texas Tech. He wanted the VSG list to be alerted to the fact that the information from Lady Borton (supplied in full by Harry Aveling below) is now outdated, and that the only publisher of the English language version will be Harmony Books.

Judith Henchy, List Administrator

Dear Judith:

I hope this letter finds you well. I recently received a message forwarded from a member of the VSG discussion list that continues to spread erroneous information concerning the English publication of the diaries if Dr. Dang Thuy Tram. In essence, VSG list members keep circulating the message from Lady Borton regarding her role in the publication of the diaries in English, to wit:

"As has been noted on the VSG list-serve, I am finishing up an annotated English translation of the hand-written original with assistance from Dang Kim Tram, Dang Thuy Tram's sister. That translation will provide historical and cultural context, in much the same way as the annotations for my translations of General Vo Nguyen Giap's /Dien Bien Phu: Rendezvous with History/ and Dr. Le Cao Dai's /The Central Highlands: A North Vietnamese Journal of Life on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, 1965-1975./ Thus, on 30 April, we expect to have two English versions, both published in Ha Noi by Nxb. Hoi Nha Van (Writers Association Publishing House)."

This information is completely wrong. The family of Dr. Dang Thuy Tram is working exclusively with Harmony Books (an imprint of Random House) and they are the only publisher working on the English translation of the diaries. While the continued circulation of Lady Borton's message is undoubtedly causing a lot of confusion, neither Lady Borton nor the Writers Association Publishing House in Vietnam have any role in this. The Tram family and Harmony Books expects to have the English translation out sometime in 2007 - probably in May. This information comes directly from Dang Kim Tram, Dang Thuy Tram's sister.

Would you please send out this information on the VSG list with a request that people stop circulating the erroneous information from Lady Borton? If people have any questions about the English language version of the diaries, they should contact Mr. John Glusman at Harmony Books:

John Glusman

Harmony Books

1745 Broadway

New York, NY 10019

jglusman@randomhouse.com

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Stephen Maxner

Deputy Director, Archivist

The Vietnam Archive, Texas Tech University

Special Collections Library Room 108

15th and Detroit

Lubbock, TX 79409-1041

Phone: 806-742-9010

Fax: 806-742-0496

Email: steve.maxner@ttu.edu

Website: www.vietnam.ttu.edu

Return to top of page