College and Research Libraries 276 I College & Research Libraries • May 1969 Reviewers of Ingraham's Outer Ft·inge commented favorably on his ability to maintain rigor and scholarship while oc- casionally engaging in humor. The same characteristic is to be found in the Mirror of Brass, which was chosen as a title, as explained in the preface, because the use of quotations suggested a mirror.-Lester ]. Pourciau, ] r., Indiana Univ ersity. The Latin American Cooperative Acqui- sitions Program . . . an Imaginative Venture. By M. J. Savary. New York: Hafner Publishing Co., Inc., 1968. 144 p. $6.50 ( 68-19791). As the subtitle indicates, this is the his- tory of an imaginative venture into the entire field of book publishing in Latin America, and the myriad difficulties in ob- taining some of these books. It is really a history of the growth of interest in what is being published in Latin America and the growing efforts to acquire these publi- cations. It is not only the history of a book- dealer's commercial gamble to try to ob- tain these publications and supply them at a profit to libraries (principally university libraries in the United States), but more importantly it is the history of a marriage. It is a marriage between many libraries trying under difficult circumstances to ac- quire materials for their Latin American collections and the Stechert-Hafner firm which offered a possible solution to this phase of the library problem. In Mrs. Savary's book, which was written as a master's thesis for the Graduate Li- brary School of Long Island University, she has very interestingly depicted the difficul- ties of acquiring books from south of our border. She discusses briefly the publishing field and indicates the variety of problems encountered in each country. In order to review these problems and to discuss pos- sible solutions, several of the leading li- brarians concerned with Latin America met in 1956 and began the first of the annual seminars known as SALALM (Seminar on the Acquisition of Latin American Library Materials) under the aegis of UNESCO and the Pan American Union. This book deals primarily with the work of these seminars in convincing the Stechert-Haf- ner Company of the need for an increas- ing effort in supplying books from Latin America and the difficulties faced by Stechert-Hafner in answering this request. The book also describes the efforts made by the Library of Congress, the Association of Research Libraries, the Organization of American States, and UNESCO to procure current publications produced in Latin America. Mrs. Savary points out the problems in publishing and marketing books in Latin America. In general books are privately published in limited editions of 500-1,000 copies only, and the author pays all the costs and handles his own distribution. He frequently gives away all copies to his friends so that copies do not get into the book trade. By the time anyone hears about the book, copies are no longer available. The book dealers are often not concerned with, or adept at, merchandising and building a market, so that even books ac- quired by dealers are seldom publicized. The end result is that neither the book dealer nor the author realize any incen- tive to publish more copies so as to make books more readily available. As Mrs. Sav- ary indicates, the task of finding out what has been published, and then trying to obtain copies, at times is almost an impos- sibility. The author follows the adventures of many of the people who b·avelled to the various countries in Latin America to es- tablish contacts with local book agents and also to purchase copies of the most recent books published in each country. She cap- tures the adventures of Nettie Lee Benson (University of Texas Library), Dominic Coppola ( Stechert-Hafner, Inc.), Wallace Bork (S.I.U. Latin American Institute), and of Guillermo Baraya Borda ( Stechert- Hafner) as each travels through Latin America setting up dealer arrangements and purchasing the more important titles. As Mrs. Savary states in the preface, it is difficult not to be enthusiastic about this imaginative scheme which is a real break- through in Latin American acquisitions. The author has included several tables in the appendix. One table gives a com- parison of prices under LACAP with prices by an Argentine agent, Fernando Garcia Cambeiro. A second table <;::ompares LACAP prices with .the prices stated in the Libras en Venta. Unfortunately no ex- planation is given for the way LACAP · prices are set, and these tables do not give any further understanding of this touchy area. Another table gives a breakdown of the number of titles acquired by Stechert- Hafner under their LACAP program and traces their acquisitions from 1,622 in 1960, the £rst year of operation, to 3,330 titles acquired in 1965. The short selective bib- liography provides a well-balanced read- Recent Publications I 277 ing list for those wanting more informa- tion. Although the book is well-written and very readable, several remarks tend to give a feeling of propagandizing for Stechert- Hafner and detract from the effectiveness of the book. Nevertheless it does bring together in one volume a survey of the state of publishing in Latin America and the tasks faced by librarians and book dealers in trying to obtain these publica- tions.-]o.hn G. V eenstra, Univ e1·sity of Florida . • •