A Letter From The Publisher, Aug. 18, 1952

Roger Lemelin, TIME'S correspondent in Quebec City, Que., finished his fourth book last month, just a little more than two years behind schedule. The schedule was something Lemelin imposed on himself in 1948 while he was working on his second book, a long (470 pages) novel, Les Plouffe (The Plouffe Family). His second child had just been born. So Lemelin told his friends: "For each new child, a new book."

Lemelin was keeping pretty close to that pace when his third child was expected in June 1950 and he was well along with a group of short stories entitled Fantasies on the...