Pantheon Books

Pantheon Books is an American book publishing imprint with editorial independence. It is part of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.[4]

Pantheon Books
Parent companyRandom House
Founded1942 (1942)
FounderKurt Wolff & Helen Wolff,[1]
Kyrill S. Schabert,[2]
Jacques Schiffrin[3]
Country of originUnited States
Headquarters locationNew York City
Key peopleDan Frank, Editorial Director
Publication typesBooks
Official websitepantheon.knopfdoubleday.com

The current editor-in-chief at Pantheon Books is Dan Frank.

Overview

Bertelsmann, the German company that also owns Bantam Books, Doubleday Publishing, and Dell Publishing, acquired Random House in 1998, along with its imprints Pantheon Books, Modern Library, Times Books, Everyman's Library, Vintage Books, Crown Publishing Group, Schocken Books, Ballantine Books, Del Rey Books, and Fawcett Publications,[5] making Bertelsmann the largest publisher of American books.

In addition to classics, international fiction, and trade paperbacks, recently Pantheon has moved aggressively into the comics market. It has published many critically acclaimed graphic novels and comics collections, including Ice Haven, La Perdida, Read Yourself RAW, Maus, In the Shadow of No Towers, and Black Hole. Many of its comics publications are high-quality collected editions of works originally serialized by other publishers such as Fantagraphics Books.

History

Pantheon Books was founded in 1942 in New York City by Helen and Kurt Wolff who had come to the United States to escape fascism and the Holocaust.[6][7] Pantheon is currently part of Bertelsmann. Important early works published by Pantheon were Zen and the Art of Archery by German scholar Eugen Herrigel, the Bollingen series (composed of C. G. Jung's collected works in English and books of noted Jungian scholars), the first complete translation of the I Ching, and Boris Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago.[6]

When Random House bought Alfred A. Knopf in 1960, the front page of the New York Times reported that the merger "united two of the nation's most celebrated publishers of quality writing".[8] The following year, Random House would buy Pantheon, which would be moved into the Knopf Publishing Group. Also in 1961, Pantheon hired Andre Schiffrin as executive editor of Pantheon Books.

Under the direction of Schiffrin, Pantheon continued to publish important works by European writers such as The Tin Drum by Günter Grass, who would later receive a Nobel Prize for his work; Madness and Civilization by Michel Foucault, The Lover by Marguerite Duras, and Adieux by Simone de Beauvoir. By the late 1960s, Pantheon started to bring American writers such as Noam Chomsky, James Loewen and Studs Terkel to European readers.[6] In 1965, RCA bought Random House.[9] Throughout the 1970s, Pantheon continued to publish intellectual and often leftist works of fiction and nonfiction "without a profit-and-loss sheet in sight".[10] In other words, Pantheon editors prided themselves on subsidizing the cost of publishing less commercially successful (but socially or intellectually important) works with the profits from more commercially successful books.[6]

In 1980, RCA sold Random House to Samuel Irving Newhouse, Jr., and Pantheon Books came under pressure to increase profits.[6]

In early 2009, long-time Pantheon publisher Janice Goldklang was laid off as part of a general restructuring of Random House and its publishing divisions.[11]

Controversies

Pantheon and Random House, which at the time was owned by SI Newhouse, were plagued with controversy throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s. In December 1989, Alberto Vitale, a former banker, replaced Robert L. Berstein as chairman and president of Random House.[12] In February 1990, Schiffrin was "asked to resign after he refused to reduce the number of titles published [by Pantheon] or to trim Pantheon's 30-member staff".[13] In protest at Schiffrin's forced resignation and other changes in staffing, such as the hiring of Erroll McDonald, editors and staff Tom Engelhardt, Wendy Wolf, Sara Bershtel, Jim Peck, Susan Rabiner, David Sternbach, Helena Franklin, Diane Wachtell, Gay Salisbury, and several others resigned in the following months.[12][13][14] Authors of books published by Pantheon, Random House, and other related imprints, including Studs Terkel, Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Princeton historian Arno Mayer, and Barbara Ehrenreich, held a protest outside Random House in March 1990 during which they argued that the termination of Schiffrin amounted to corporate censorship of the books that would not be printed without him.[13] Novelist E. L. Doctorow used his acceptance speech for a fiction prize at the March 1990 National Book Critics Circle award ceremony to criticize Random House for ousting Schiffrin.[15]

In the week following the protests, 40 Random House editors and publishers signed a statement that defended the personnel changes at Pantheon, stating: "like Pantheon, we abhor corporate censorship. We have never experienced it, nor do we believe that Pantheon has ever experienced it. We would not tolerate censorship of any form, and we are offended by any suggestion to the contrary. But, unlike Pantheon, we have preserved our independence and the independence of our authors by supporting the integrity of our publishing programs with fiscal responsibility".[16] Another supporter of Schiffrin's termination wrote that the protests and resignations were "a hilarious specimen of people intoxicated by self-importance. It also is a case study of the descent of intellectuals' leftism into burlesque".[17]

In 1998, Random House made news again when it was bought by Bertelsmann. The Authors Guild approached the Fair Trade Commission, arguing that "the $1.4 billion acquisition of Random House by Bantam's parent, Bertelsmann AG, the German media conglomerate, would create a "new economic behemoth" with the potential to restrict readers' choices and authors' ability to market their works".[18] Bertelsmann was allowed to make the purchase, however, making it the largest publisher of English-language trade books. Again, Schiffrin protested, noting that in the eight years since Random House had come under the direction of Vitale, "Random House's 'high end'—the literary translations and books of criticism, cultural history and political analysis that had built the reputation of the Knopf and Pantheon imprints—were being sacrificed" and that concerns for the "bottom line" would outweigh intellectual and social concerns.[19]

Schiffrin published a memoir in 2000, in which he explains his side of the controversies surrounding Pantheon and Random House called The Business of Books: How International Conglomerates Took Over Publishing and Changed the Way We Read, in which he accused Vitale and those with money-making interests of homogenizing the publishing industry by focusing too much on profits, and warns: "the resulting control on the spread of ideas is stricter than anyone would have thought possible in a free society".[6] In a 2003 interview, former Pantheon editor Tom Engelhardt reflects on the Pantheon controversy in light of the acquisition by Bertelsmann: "Pantheon was a very specific place, publishing a very specific kind of book, and we felt that was being wiped out. As it turned out, what happened at Pantheon was the beginning of the gargantuan feasting on the independent publishing house and not-so-independent houses as well."[20]

Pantheon today

Pantheon continues to publish well-respected fiction and non-fiction, and has more recently expanded further into graphic novels. Pantheon re-issued books in the graphic-based "...For Beginners" series (originally published by Writers and Readers Cooperative) in the 1970s and 1980s; deciding to bring the series back in 2003.[21]

One of the first original graphic novels Pantheon published was the highly acclaimed Maus: A Survivor's Tale by Art Spiegelman in 1986. Spiegelman has become somewhat of a comics consultant, advising editor-in-chief Dan Frank.[22] Another key member of the Pantheon Graphic Novels team is graphic designer Chip Kidd.[23]

In 2000, Pantheon published The Acme Novelty Library by Chris Ware.[22] In 2005, Pantheon published The Rabbi's Cat, a graphic novel by Joann Sfar that "tells the wholly unique story of a rabbi, his daughter, and their talking cat".[24] Notable cartoonists whose graphic novels have been published by Pantheon include Spiegelman, Ware, Dan Clowes, Ben Katchor, Marjane Satrapi, and David Mazzucchelli.

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Literature and criticism

Selections from the Bollingen Series
  • Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization, eds. Heinrich Robert Zimmer and Joseph Campbell (1946)
  • The I Ching or Book of Changes, Wilhelm, R., and C. Baynes, 1967. With foreword by Carl Jung. 3rd ed., Bollingen Series XIX. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press (1st ed. 1950).
  • The Collected Works of C.G. Jung by Carl Jung (1953)
  • Psychological Reflections: An Anthology of the Writings of C.G. Jung by Carl Jung(1953)
  • Creative Intuition in Art and Poetry by Jacques Maritain (1953)
  • The Origins and History of Consciousness by Erich Neumann (1954)
  • Painting and Reality by Étienne Gilson (1957)
  • Yoga: Immortality and Freedom by Mircea Eliade (1958)
  • Zen and Japanese Culture by Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki (1959)
  • Art and Illusion: A Study in the Psychology of Pictorial Representation by E. H. Gombrich (1960)
  • Of Divers Arts by Naum Gabo (1962)
  • The "I" and the "Not-I": A Study in the Development of Consciousness by Mary Esther Harding (1965)
  • Birds by Saint-John Perse and Georges Braque (1966)
  • Eleusis: Archetypal Image of Mother and Daughter by Karl Kerényi (1967)

Comics and graphic novels
  • The "...for Beginners" series of comics:
    • Go for Beginners by Kaoru Iwamoto and Ishi Press (1976) ISBN 0394733312
    • Lenin for Beginners by Richard Appignanesi and Oscar Zarate (1978)
    • Freud for Beginners by Richard Appignanesi and Oscar Zarate (1979)
    • Trotsky for Beginners by Tariq Ali (1980)
    • Ecology for Beginners by Stephen Croall and William Rankin (1981)
    • Marx's Kapital for Beginners by David N. Smith, and Phil Evans, and Karl Marx (1982)
    • Nuclear Power for Beginners by Stephen Croall and Kaianders Sempler (1983)
    • Economists for Beginners by Bernard Canavan (1983)
  • Love is Hell by Matt Groening (1985)
  • Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History by Art Spiegelman (1986)
  • Read Yourself RAW by Art Spiegelman and Françoise Mouly (1987)
  • School is Hell: A Cartoon Book by Matt Groening (1987)
  • Childhood is Hell: A Cartoon Book" by Matt Groening (1988)
  • The Big Book of Hell: A Cartoon Book by Matt Groening (1990)
  • Maus II: A Survivor's Tale: And Here My Troubles Began by Art Spiegelman (1991)
  • Love is Still Hell: A Cartoon Book by Matt Groening (1994)
  • The Jew of New York by Ben Katchor (1998)
  • Ethel & Ernest by Raymond Briggs (1998)
  • David Boring by Daniel Clowes (2000)
  • Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth by Chris Ware (2000)
  • Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer: The Beauty Supply District by Ben Katchor (2000)
  • In the Floyd Archives: A Psycho-Bestiary by Sarah Boxer (2001)
  • Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi (2003)
  • In the Shadow of No Towers by Art Spiegelman (2004)
  • Persepolis II by Marjane Satrapi (2004)
  • Amy and Jordan by Mark Beyer (2004)
  • Black Hole by Charles Burns (2005)
  • Embroideries by Marjane Satrapi (2005)
  • Epileptic by David Beauchard (2005)
  • Ice Haven by Daniel Clowes (2005)
  • The Rabbi's Cat by Joann Sfar (2005)
  • Chicken with Plums by Marjane Satrapi (2006)
  • La Perdida by Jessica Abel (2006)
  • A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick, adapted by Richard Linklater (2006)
  • Alias the Cat! by Kim Deitch (2007)
  • Breakdowns: Portrait of the Artist as a Young %@*! by Art Spiegelman (2008)
  • My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down by David Heatley (2008)
  • Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli (2009)
  • A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge by Josh Neufeld (2009)
  • The Cardboard Valise by Ben Katchor (2011)
  • My Brother's Husband by Gengoroh Tagame (2014)
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References
  1. McGuire, William. Bollingen An Adventure in Collecting the Past, Princeton University Press (1989), p 273.
  2. "Obituaries: Kyrill S. Schabert, 74, Dead; Ex-Head of Pantheon Books", New York Times (April 10, 1983).
  3. Pantheon history on World Without End.
  4. Random House, Inc. Datamonitor Company Profiles Authority: Retrieved 6/20/2007, from EBSCO Host Business Source Premier database.
  5. Miller, M. C. (March 26, 1998), "And then there were seven", Opinion, The New York Times, p. A.27.
  6. Schiffrin, A. (2000). The Business of Books: How International Conglomerates Took Over Publishing and Changed the Way we Read. London/New York: Verso.
  7. Korda, Michael (1999). Another Life: a memoir of other people (1st ed.). New York: Random House. ISBN 0679456597.
  8. Talese, B. G. (April 17, 1960). "Random House will buy Knopf in merger". New York Times. p. 1.
  9. Funding Universe Company Profile on Random House
  10. Engelhardt, T. (1990), "Pantheon purge", The Progressive, 54(5), 46.
  11. Neyfakh, Leon (January 8, 2009). "Pantheon Publisher Janice Goldklang Latest Victim of Layoffs at Random House Inc". New York Observer. |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  12. McDowell, E. (February 28, 1990). "New Pantheon head named amid resignation protest". New York Times. p. D.2.
  13. McDowell, E. (March 6, 1990). "250 protest resignation at Pantheon". New York Times. p. D.21.
  14. "More Pantheon editors resign in protest". New York Times. May 3, 1990. p. C.21.
  15. Cohen, R. (March 9, 1990). "THE MEDIA BUSINESS; Top Random House author assails ouster at Pantheon". New York Times. p. D.18.
  16. McDowell, E. (March 13, 1990). "THE MEDIA BUSINESS; 40 at Random House critical of Pantheon". New York Times. p. D.23.
  17. Will, G. F. (March 25, 1990). "The `Right' to lose other people's money". The Washington Post. p. c.07.
  18. Barringer, F. (May 30, 1998). "F.T.C. clears merger path for publishers". New York Times. p. D.1.
  19. Schiffrin, A. (April 30, 1998). "Eyes on the bottom line". The Washington Post. p. A.21.
  20. Lara, A. (July 6, 2003). "Q & A /Tom Engelhardt / "Getting the business end of publishing"". San Francisco Chronicle. p. M.2.
  21. MacDonald, H. (2003). "Pantheon re-offers 'for beginners' series". Publishers Weekly. 250 (51). p. 26.
  22. Wolk, D. (2005). "The GN imprint that isn't". Publishers Weekly. 252 (10). p. 46.
  23. Tamura, Taylor. "Good is Dead; Graphic Designer Chip Kidd". Humboldt State University. Retrieved January 12, 2015.Archived January 12, 2015, at the Wayback Machine
  24. Pantheon web site.
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