The Writings of Revilo P Oliver 1908-1994
CLARIFICATION
by Professor Revilo P. Oliver
(Liberty Bell, June 1993)



Communications that I have recently received by mail and telephone oblige me to state precisely the extent of my responsibility for what appears in this periodical.

What I write appears in Liberty Bell without editorial intervention. I am therefore entirely responsible for the content and style of everything that appears under my name, except, of course, for any mechanical slip that may occur between the proof-sheets and the final printing. The editor is responsible only for the publication of what I have written.

Since I have not been blessed with the infallibility of evangelists, I am likely to be guilty of inadvertent errors and oversights. I shall be grateful for corrections, as I am grateful to the valued correspondents who send me useful information, whose names I do not disclose without specific permission.

I write for the tiny number of individuals who wish, not to be shocked by horrors, but to understand their antecedent and sometimes remote causes, so far as that may be possible. My concern is with facts and their causality, not with scribbling egotistic rodomontade. I have neither time nor inclination to disregard our desperate plight by indulging in the now fashionable distraction of lambasting fellow "racists" in billingsgate. And if you wish broadsides in simplified language that (you imagine) will startle a million Americans from their narcotized slumbers, you must apply to some other writer.

I do not finance Liberty Bell. I would not do so, had I the means. That would contravene my principles. I have never subsidized or otherwise contributed financially to the publication of anything that I have written. I do not enjoy composing these little articles. I do so only on the chance that they may help my readers identify strands of the spider's web that has been woven about them and in which they are now held captive and helpless. I write with the hope of fostering in some small way the putative survival of our race and culture. To that end I employ whatever talent I may possess. It seems to me that when I have done that, I have done my part in a normal relationship between author and publisher. If our people do not see fit to arrange for the publication of what I earnestly offer them, then I am mistaken, either about a society that is no longer viable or about the value of what I have written, and it would be an exercise of either futility or vanity to try to force it on the attention of the public. Such is my standard. Other writers feel otherwise. They may be right, but I cannot emulate their self-assurance.

I do not edit Liberty Bell. I do not see articles (other than my own) before they are published in it. I do not want to see them. Such energies as I have left are fully occupied by tasks that I hope I may live to complete. And if that were not so, I would not presume to admonish the editor about what he should include and exclude. If there are articles which offend or disgust you, communicate with him, not with me. I may agree with you, but do not expect me to endorse your opinion. Long ago, when I was young, there yet lingered in the Western world a tradition of courtesy toward one's hosts. An author is a guest at the publisher's table. According to the etiquette I was taught, it would be impolite to throw dishes or silverware at him.
 
 

This article originally appeared in Liberty Bell magazine, published monthly by George P. Dietz from September 1973 to February 1999. For reprint information please write to Liberty Bell Publications, Post Office Box 21, Reedy WV 25270 USA.

Copyright ©1999 Kevin Alfred Strom.  Back to Revilo P. Oliver Index