Leo Sauvage

[John Simkin]

Tim, you will find a handy overview by Jerry Organ of the major books on the case at this link:

http://www.geocities.com/jfkword/

I would add a few comments to Organ's list:

1) Revolution: 1963-1969

In the early period 1963-1969 Organ omits The Oswald Affair by Leo Sauvage. Sauvage was the U.S. correspondent for Le Figaro and very respected in European circles, but being a frenchman he got no respect in the U.S. In that respect the times they ain't a-changin'.

Sauvage conducted his own investigation in Dallas and his book was contracted to Random House, but they cancelled the deal when they discovered that the book argued that Lee Oswald had no more involvement in either the Tippit or JFK killings than Dreyfus had in selling military secrets to the Germans. The French edition (L'Affaire Oswald) was published in Paris in the Spring of 1965 and favorably reviewed by major newspapers and magazines in France and Switzerland.

Harold Weisberg completed Whitewash around the same time, but could not find a publisher, thus L'Affaire Oswald will forever have the distinction of being the first book ever published to analyze the Warren Report and the 26 volumes, and so Paris trumps New York as the capital of free speech.

"Quite a few New York publishers" (Sauvage doesn't specify how many) also rejected the book, but eventually a Cleveland Ohio company that specialized in The Bible brought out the English language version. (Operation Mockingbird did not extend to Cleveland?) Reviewers either ignored the book or -- as in the case of the New York Times -- completely mirepresented its contents, and I believe it never got past a first printing. Many U.S. libraries have copies or you might be able to obtain a copy from Andy at Last Hurrah books, or from a dealer in Paris.

Incidentally, Sauvage wrote the introduction to the first edition of Accessories After The Fact by Sylvia Meagher (I own a mint condition copy signed by Sylvia herself, if anyone is a millionaire and wants to buy it). He also became embroiled in controversy with Thomas Buchanan, whose book Who Killed Kennedy? was written before the Warren Report.  Sauvage also made no secret of his disapproval of Mark Lane, but of course Lane sold over a million copies of Rush to Judgement vs a few thousand copies of The Oswald Affair. 

Sauvage took part in a few discussions on radio, but I believe he dropped the subject of the assassination in complete frustration, and concentrated on writing about theatre and popular entertainment.

Does anyone have any info about a U.K. edition of Sauvage's book?

See the following for a discussion on Thomas Buchanan:

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=2846

According to Thomas Buchanan the attack on him was by Leo's brother:

http://karws.gso.uri.edu/JFK/The_critics/B...f_a_theory.html

[Roger Fong]

John,

My copy of The Oswald Affair is a second printing dated 1966. It was published by The World Publishing Company in Cleveland. On the back of the title page, the publisher notes the book was published simultaneously in Canada by Nelson, Foster & Scott Ltd.

Roger

[J. Raymond Carroll]

In his letter to the New Leader Buchanan claimed that Leo Sauvage was not the author of the anti-Buchanan article in a previous edition of that same journal. However a review of Chapter 18 of the Oswald Affair (Cleveland 1966), which deals with Buchanan, shows so many similarities of style and content to Sauvage's New Leader article that I personally have no doubt that Buchanan was mistaken (wishful thinking on his part,perhaps?).

Ken Rahn's website, like David Wrone's bibliography, gives the impression that Sauvage's book was written before the Warren Commission volumes were published. This is evidence that neither Rahn nor Wrone had read Sauvage's book.

As a consequence of the error in Wrone's bibligraphy, many researchers have never bothered to read Sauvage's book and are unaware of its unique status in the literature of the assassination.

[J. Raymond Carroll]

Does anyone have any info about a U.K. edition of Sauvage's book? Was there one, or did Operation Mockingbird invoke and capitalize on the Special Relationship?

[John Simkin]

Does anyone have any info about a U.K. edition of Sauvage's book?  Was there one, or did  Operation Mockingbird invoke and capitalize on the Special Relationship?

See:

http://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/SearchRe...imagefield.y=13

[J. Raymond Carroll]

Does anyone have any info about a U.K. edition of Sauvage's book?  Was there one, or did  Operation Mockingbird invoke and capitalize on the Special Relationship?

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See:

http://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/SearchRe...imagefield.y=13

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Abebooks only has the Cleveland edition. For example the copy from Mr. Unwin's library (I'm assuming he's from Allen & Unwin, the London publisher) is a Cleveland edition, and from all this I deduce that there never was a U.K. edition

[Marian Buchanan]

In his letter to the New Leader Buchanan claimed that Leo Sauvage was not the author of the anti-Buchanan article in a previous edition of that same journal. However a review of Chapter 18 of the Oswald Affair (Cleveland 1966), which deals with Buchanan, shows so many similarities of style and content to Sauvage's New Leader article that I personally have no doubt that Buchanan was mistaken (wishful thinking on his part,perhaps?).

No, this wasn't about wishful thinking, it was humor that apparently not every reader understood. I've clarified in the thread about my father and also on his website in a blog post titled "The non-existence of K.O. Sauvage."