Summer Times is the Journal of the Old Scarborians Association

early 1930s, Journey in Eng‐
land and Dialectics; the Tac‐
tics of Thinking. However,
he wrote three more books,
which were never pub‐
lished in his lifetime, and I
am trying to get them pub‐
lished now.
Sown with Corn, his semi‐
autobiographical novel of life in Germany
during the rise of the Nazis, has been carefully
considered by several of the leading publish‐
ing houses. All of them did read the book and
acknowledged its quality before coming up
with different reasons why they couldn’t take
it on. Typical was Cassell, where two people
read it, saying it was ‘a remarkable work’ and
might be a ‘minor classic’ before rejecting it on
‘purely commercial grounds’.
I have not given up, and a best‐selling novelist
friend is putting the book before his agent. I
am also going to approach Corgi, which re‐
cently published The Past is Myself, the story of
an English woman who married a German and
lived in Germany through the 1930s and the
War – well worth reading.
I have the first two chapters of Binder’s book
on my computer, and can send by email to
anyone interested.
The second unpublished book is a sci‐fi novel,
and I have the difficulty that I am not the best
judge of it because I have an antipathy to the
genre. I have therefore had it read by a sci‐fi
buff, who enjoyed it, but felt it was very dated.
I am going to get that opinion checked by an‐
other reader.
The third book, The Principles of Controversy, is
about dialectics, and Binder spent ten years
writing it, before deciding that the world was
not ready for it. I have had it looked at by an
Oxford philosophy don. Sadly, he felt it was
unlikely that any publisher would be inter‐
ested, because the book ‘is not closely enough
connected to any traditional or contemporary
philosophical debates’. I shall nevertheless
21
keep trying. I continue to get requests for pho‐
tocopies of Journey in England, including one
from an Australian who had come across the
references to Binder in Partridge’s Usage and
Abusage. He had then done an internet search
and found the OSA website and my email
address. I can still provide copies, but I’m
afraid that rising costs mean I have to charge
£17.
Viv Beeby, senior producer, radio and music,
at the BBC asked for a copy after reading my
essay, and I hope something might come of
that. I should welcome help from any Old
Scarborians in my efforts to get Binder pub‐
lished.
Top left: Binder
relaxing in Italy;
Top right: Binder
in the 1920s;
Centre: Binder’s
identity card in
occupied Ger‐
many after WWI.
Left: Binder on his
retirement day.