Chapter 224 To the People's Literature Editorial Department

Comrade from the editorial department of People's Literature: Regarding the primary selection of the book "Selected Short Stories in 1959" for the Writers Publishing House, I have a few opinions to share with you. 1. The word count of the first-selected works is about twice the word count of the published book.For example, if the book is prepared to be 500,000 words, the number of words in the primary selection works can be around 1 million words. Second, the subject matter should be as wide as possible, covering all aspects.For the weaker aspects, the artistic standards in the primary election should be relaxed. For example, the artistic standards for ethnic minorities should be more relaxed than those for industrial agriculture (including those written by ethnic minority writers and describing the lives of ethnic minorities).

Three, try to include a variety of styles. 4. If you think it is optional or not, please gather it together and show it to me. 5. In addition to various central publications, excellent works from various local publications should be selected and compiled as extensively as possible.Please urge all places to send recommended catalogs as soon as possible. I think that by doing the primary selection based on the above five points, we can avoid the phenomenon that the works that should be selected are omitted.I don't know what you think?I hope you have any comments.This is a hasty, Shun Song editor Ann!

Mao Dun December 11, 1959