Ted Kaczynski's Correspondence with Jeff Lees

Ted to Jeff - April 3^rd, 2014

Dear Mr. Lees,

Thanks for your letter dated 3/14/14, which I received on 3/24/14. ...

Ted to Jeff - September 28^th, 2014

Dear Jeff,

Thanks for your letter of 9/6/14, which I received on 9/17/14. I'm sorry I haven't answered sooner, but problems continually come up here ...

I agree with you about e-books, and for the same reason: It is scary that the companies that offer e-books can rewrite them at will. But there's more: If the publisher of an e-book goes out of business or simply decides to delete the book it just disappears, whereas a book printed on good paper will last for centuries. Also (though this is less important), e-books don't give the page numbers of the corresponding printed book, which creates a problem if a user of an e-book and a user of the printed version want to cite particular passages to one another. The publisher of Tech Slavery, Adam Parfrey, published the e-version without my permission. Parfrey is now publishing T.S. on an expired contract, and Julie and I have been exploring the possibilities for legally forcing Parfrey either to stop publication altogether or to negotiate a new contract that will bar e-books. Julie can give you up-to-date information on that, which I don't yet have.

You mention that nearly all the libraries you've contacted say they seldom purchase self-published books. A man named Bradley Hall with whom Julie & I have had some contact wrote to me on 3/8/12 and 5/1/12: "They [CreateSpace] offer expanded distribution for $25. That means the book will be ... available for libraries." "... the Expanded Distribution fee makes the book available to a group called Baker & Taylor who deal with sellingn books to libraries." Questions to which it would be good to have answers: If the Expanded Distribution fee is paid, can it safely be assumed that Baker & Taylor will put the book on their list? Do libraries often buy CreateSpace books from the Baker & Taylor list?

1. The Idea of a Facebook page. You mention that you would be pleased to see Facebook eradicated from our society. Well I'd be pleased to see all computers eradicated, and that would be the end of Facebook, too. But since all this stuff does exist, we can't afford not to use it if and when it's to our advantage to use it. SO I wouldn't exclude a facebook page if you, Susan & Julie all agree that it would be useful. But I know hardly anything about Facebook and I have no idea what should be put on it, so I'll let you, Susan, and Julie{1} figure that out. But two things: (i) Before you put anything on the Facebook page, please send it to me so that I'll have a chance to object to anything I think is inappropriate; and (ii) please don't include an "author bio". In fact you should say as little as possible about the author, because the focus should be on the subject of the book and not on the author.

2. To answer your question, the title of the book is "Anti-Tech Revolution: Why and How."

3. As regards other ideas for marketing the book, I've corresponded for well over ten years with a man named Erik Schlimmer, erikschlimmer@gmail.com

(This address is a few years old; I hope it's still good.) Several years ago Schlimmer (who prefers to be called "Schlimmer", not "Erik") published a guide to hiking trails with McGraw-Hills. He found McGraw-Hill treated him unfairly, perhaps dishonestly, so he said he was going to self-publish his second ...

Mr. Take will need to confirm his findings by questioning people at other environemntal gatherings, and even if his findings are confirmed in Australia it won't necessarily follow that htey will hold true in the U.S. We would need to talk with environmentalists in this country.

But the point here is that before we organize a rally we should try to collect this type of information about the class of people whom we hope to attract to the rally.

Mur. Tuke, by the way, wrote me that he was going to attend another environmentalist demonstration and talk to people there. If you like, you can email him,

markc_david@yahoo.com.au

and ask him for his findings.{2} If information has to be relayed through me there are excessive delays due to the slowness of my mail, so it's much more efficient if people communicate with each other directly.

That will have to suffice for the present letter. I could say more, but time is always limited.

Wishing all the best to you & your family,

Ted

Ted to Jeff - December 22^nd, 2014

... Notice that the letter took 25 days to reach me, from the date when it was mailed. For over a year now my mail has been subject to unreasonable delays ...

... Speaking of money, it must have cost you something to make phone calls to 100 different libraries and to buy a copy of Tech Slavery for one library ...

... Let's say that roughly one fourth of the U.S. libraries that have Tech Slavery in some form have it in the form of hard copies. So sixty-odd libraries in the U.S. Not bad ...

... I'm not going to give Theresa Conroy your email address, because I've known her for only a short time ...

... For example, I corresponded with a woman named Jess for more than a year ...

... before I found out she was selling my letters ...

... There certainly are plenty of other tasks, especially connected with the publication of the new book ...

... your first and most important task is to clear up the communication problems between you, Susan, Julie, and Schlimmer ...

... when you receive a letter or email from Susan, Julie, or Schlimmer and can't give them a full answer promptly due to pressure of other work, you should immediately send them a very brief email or a postcard in which you acknowledge their message ...

Ted to Jeff - January 26^th, 2015

Dear Jeff,

I hope you received my postcard dated 1/15/15, in which I thanked you for your Christmas card. I greatly appreciated the message that you wrote in the card.

Now I'll answer your letter of 1/4/15, which I received on 1/20/15.

• I am able to read your cursive handwriting ...

• You write, "I am guessing that the reason Schlimmer never got back to me is that ... I was using 'gmail' address instead of a 'yahoo' address." But, according to Schlimmer's letter ... his email is

  erikschlimmer@gmail.com

  Did you mean that you used a "yahoo" address ...

• Maybe Susan has already explained this to you, but in case she hasn't: Julie and a friend of hers were working on getting the book published via CreateSpace, but a family emergency forced Julie to drop out of the book project. At about the same time I learned that Schlimmer had had very bad experiences with CreateSpace. So Susan is now in charge of the book project and is planning to publish the book by Schlimmer's method, that is, by hiring her own printer, etc. -- assuming that the problems can be worked out. One of the problems is that of financing the self-publication project, so any help you can offer in that regard will be appreciated. Schlimmer makes a profit on his self-published books, so the people who put money into this project can expect to get their money back eventually and to make some profit besides -- provided that Susan, you, et al are successful in marketing the book, which is not a foregone conclusion.

Another problem is: When people order copies of the book in response to the group's marketing efforts, who will be responsible for receiving their remittances and sending them the books they've ordered? YOu will have to advertise an address (email or postal) to which people can send their orders, and I don't suppose Susan, you, or anyone will want to have his or her personal email or postal address advertised publicly. I could receive orders here and pass them on to whomever was responsible for sending out the books -- except that the unpredictable, unreasonable delays in my mail would make that impractical, and moreover I wouldn't be allowed to receive payments for the books ordered. So the group will have to set up an email or postal address to which orders for copies of the book can be sent.

For the time being, let's forget about an address for new correspondents to write to. We can think about later. For now the important thing is to get the publication project going, and for that you need an address to which people can send orders for books. A post-office box perhaps will be best. I recommend that you discuss this question with Susan and see what you two can work out. It might be helpful to bring Lydia Eccles into the discussion too. Her contact information is

P.O. BOX 201
ALLSTON MA 02134
email: universalaliens@hotmail.com

Lydia is a thoroughly trustworthy person whom I've known for nearly 17 years, and she often has creative ideas.

I think that covers everything I need to cover for the present. I hope that your studies in American History are going well, and that your family is thriving.

Best regards,
Ted

cc: Susan Gale

Ted to Jeff - April 13^th, 2015

I hope you've received my letter of 2/9/15. Susan tells me that you told her that you had heard from someone at Feral House that they would be interested in publishing my new book. ...

I'll appreciate it if you'll send the following message from me to the person from whom you heard the expression of interest:

A precondition for any discussion of possible publication of my new book by Feral House is an explicit, written acknowledgment by Adam Parfrey that his right to publish Technological Slavery expired upon the expiration of my contract with Xenia, and that his continued publication of Technological Slavery constitutes an infringement of my copyright.

Of course, there's virtually no chance that Parfrey will give me such an acknowledgment, but I'll appreciate it if you'll send the message anyway, just as a challenge to Parfrey.

Thanks.

I hope all is well with you & your family.

Best regards,
Ted

{1} But here and in other matters, please try not to take any more of Julie's time than necessary. Her burden of work is very heavy.

{2} ...