David Irving

London, November 1, 1997

Dear Editor,

I READ Kenneth Ledford's article, "Seeking the Real Hitler" (Oct. 14?)

It seems that after twenty-five years nursing a poisonous grudge, John Lukács has at last found a chance to vent his spleen against me (the "outright Hitler apologist"), writing about "the distortions of hacks like Irving" in his book The Hitler of History (reviewed, Plain Dealer, Oct 19).

Lukács also faults the "unclassifiable crank" Ernst Nolte (professor of history at Berlin's Free University) and my friend John Toland, the Pulitzer Prize winner. What a pity readers cannot see the oily letter which Lukács wrote to Toland on March 21, 1972 (it is in the FDR Library, Hyde Park, N.Y.), bewailing the fact that no publisher will touch his own planned magnum opus on Hitler because The Viking Press is under contract to publish mine.[*]

The sour grapes have not ripened any over the twenty-five years since then, it seems.

I have taken steps to warn British publishers of the risks they will run if they publish Lukacs' work within the jurisdiction of the English courts!

Yours faithfully,
David Irving

[* Hitler's War]

Further notes:

1. See also the similar review published in the Australia/Israel Review on May 1, 1998, sand Mr Irving's comments on it.