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Article: Tao Te Ching.
- Article from:
- The Nation
- Article date:
- June 26, 1989
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1989 The Nation Company L.P. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The news in February 1988 that Harper & Row had paid Stephen Mitchell $130,000 for a new translation of Lao-tzu's Tao Te Ching should have marked a minor watershed. Finally, an eminent translator and a book of poetry as difficult as it is profound were being accorded that bottom-fine value previously resaved for blockbuster fiction. But the Tao Te Ching has always sold relatively well, as have Mitchell's earlier translations, so Harper & Row's gamble on the sales potential of a properly marketed edition was probably safer than it might seem. And with over 35,000 copies of the hardcover sold since the book's publication last October, that gamble is paying off. For our ...