Description
Obscure in the Shade of Giants (Publishing Lives Volume 2) by Jerome Gold
ISBN 978-0930773618
For the second volume of Publishing Lives, Jerome Gold follows the path of a book from its author’s conception to its becoming available to readers. He interviews a poet and novelist, 26 independent publishers, a sales rep, distributors and booksellers. Among those whose interviews are included are Barney Rosset (Grove Press), Juris Jurjevics (Soho Press), Dan Simon (Seven Stories), John Oakes (Four Walls Eight Windows), Allan Kornblum (Coffee House Press), Fiona McCrae (Graywolf Press), Charlie Winton (Publishers Group West), Randall Beek (Bookpeople, Consortium), Chuck and Dee Robinson (Village Books) and 25 others.
In Obscure in the Shade of the Giants, writers, publishers, distributors and others on the independent side of book publishing talk about how they came to their craft and what keeps them at it. Among the issues raised are author-publisher relations, the advantages and disadvantages of having a nonprofit press, the impact of superstores and dot.coms on the industry, the balance (or lack of it) between commerce and art.
What they say:
“[T]he rules of all the arts are there to be broken. That’s one of the things that makes us interested in the work of new writers” (Bruce McPherson)
“I still believe in the power of the written word . . . I believe that the people who read our books are the kinds of people who can influence the course of the future for the better” (Allan Kornblum)
“[P]ublishing takes you over. It just swallows you up” (Emelie Buchwald)
“Sex and politics together, right from the beginning . . . It’s never changed” (Barney Rosset)
“[A]ll of this stuff about what’s going on with the book industry, you forget that these are people who had a personal vision and believed in it . . . and were producing a myriad of ideas, from literature to how to fix your Volkswagen” (Randall Beek)
Reviews
Readers dismayed at the increasing corporatization of the publishing world, lamented by Andr‚ Schiffrin in The Business of Books (LJ 8/00) and Jason Epstein in Book Business (Norton, 2001), will be somewhat heartened by this collection of interviews with 35 figures involved with independent presses. Gold (Publishing Lives) has interviewed 26 publishers, three book distributors, a sales representative, a wholesaler, two bookstore owners, a novelist, and a poet, granting them free rein to discuss visions as varied as his subjects themselves. Barney Rosset, who ran Grove Press, relates his legal battles against the censors to publish Henry Miller; Milkweed Editions’ Emilie Buchwald complains of the distributors who are “taking the money that should go to authors and publishing companies”; C.W. Truesdale, of nonprofit New Rivers Press, and Pearl Kilbride, of for-profit Ruminator Books, weigh the pros and cons of seeking outside funding; while Consortium Book Sales’ Randall Beek bemoans the decreasing shelf lives of books in chain stores. What emerges through the gloom is their deep commitment a commitment Schiffrin and Epstein would instantly recognize. A worthy follow-up to Volume 1: Interviews With Independent Book Publisher in the Pacific Northwest; recommended for academic, literary, and large business libraries.
—Library Journal, Richard Koss, New York
“These are people with a passion for books, reading and literature. They know full well what they’re up against but have an upbeat spirit. They’re cultured and literate the way the marketing slugs at the conglomerates can never understand.”
—ZYX
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