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George Braziller

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George Braziller (February 12, 1916[1] – March 16, 2017)[2] was an American book publisher and the founder of George Braziller, Inc., a firm known for its literary and artistic books and its publication of foreign authors.[3]

Life and career

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Braziller was first employed as a shipping clerk,[4] during the Great Depression. In 1941, George and Marsha Braziller founded the "Book Find Club",[5] which was smaller than the Book of the Month Club but exceedingly successful, "with a reputation for seriousness of purpose."[3] They then began the "Seven Arts Book Society" in 1951 and in 1955 they began to publish their own books.[5] The Braziller publishing firm is located at 277 Broadway, Suite 708,[6] in Manhattan, New York City. When Braziller travelled to Europe in the late 1950s, he was in Paris during the May 1958 crisis in France brought about by the Algerian War of Independence.[a] Henri Alleg's book La Question, an autobiographical account of imprisonment and torture in Algiers, which Braziller brought back from that trip and published in English-language translation,[7] was his firm's first big success in the United States, with an introduction written by Jean-Paul Sartre.[8]

While I was there, a book came out [La Question]. I got the book, took it back to America, got a hold of Richard Howard to translate it, brought the book out overnight, and we sold 10,000 copies.[verification needed] Just like that we became famous. Those were really exciting times in Paris. I remember you'd go to the corner café, and there were artists like Max Ernst, Giacometti, Calder, and then the writers, poets, playwrights, dramatists like Camus, Michaux, Ionesco, Dürrenmatt ... Those were the early years, when you would say "only in America" could you start a book club with only 25 bucks and move it up to 100,000 members and then start a publishing house.

— George Braziller, Brooklyn Rail interview.[4]

In 2011, George Braziller retired at the age of 95. His son Michael Braziller of Persea Books,[9] became publisher and editorial director while George's elder son Joel Braziller became secretary-treasurer and director of permissions. With a small team they maintain the Braziller tradition with new series and a rich backlist.[5]

Book series

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Book series published by George Braziller have included:

  • The American Culture Series
  • The American Image Series
  • The Arts of Mankind
  • The Braziller Series of Poetry[10]
  • The Great American Artists Series[11]
  • The Great Draughtsmen Series
  • The Great Fresco Cycles of the Renaissance[12]
  • Great Religions of Modern Man
  • The Masters of World Architecture Series[13]
  • New Directions in Architecture
  • Planning and Cities
  • Vision + Value Series
  • World Landscape Art & Architecture Series

Beginning in 1968, Braziller also published an implicit series of "excellent editions of partial facsimiles" of medieval manuscripts.[14]

Book series published by Michael Braziller have included:

  • The Braziller Series of Australian Poets[15]

Notes

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  1. ^ The reference in the 2005 Brooklyn Rail interview to "May 1968" must be an error, since Braziller goes on to state that La Question came out while he was in Paris, and that book's US publication by him was also in 1958.

References

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  1. ^ Braziller, George. "United States Public Records Index". Family Search. Retrieved 2 December 2013.
  2. ^ Italie, Hillel (March 17, 2017). "George Braziller, literary publisher dies at 101". Archived 2017-03-18 at the Wayback Machine, Associated Press. Retrieved 2017-03-19.
  3. ^ a b Sommerville, Henry S. "2003 Visiting Fellow and Library Research Grant". Friends of the Princeton University Library. Princeton University. Archived from the original on October 12, 2012. The new publishing house followed the model of the book club, bringing out works of popular physical and social science, literature, and art, often reviving out-of-print books that found a grateful audience. Braziller soon added new fiction by foreign authors, especially French 'new novelists,' and debut novels by American authors ... By the close of the 1960s, Braziller's importance as a publisher of literary and artistic books rivaled that of larger publishers and marked the firm as a leader in these fields. Sommerville's dissertation, "Commerce and Culture in the Career of the Permanent Innovative Press: New Directions, Grove Press, and George Braziller Inc." (University of Rochester, 2009) is available online through the University of Rochester's scholarly repository.
  4. ^ a b Braziller, George (February 2005). "George Braziller in Conversation with Phong Bui". The Brooklyn Rail (Interview). Interviewed by Phong Bui. Retrieved October 28, 2019.
  5. ^ a b c "History". George Braziller. Retrieved October 28, 2019.
  6. ^ "George Braziller [homepage]". George Braziller, Inc. Retrieved 2017-03-19.
  7. ^ D. W. Brogan (June 8, 1958). "The Edge of the Abyss; THE QUESTION. By Henri Alleg. Introduction by Jean - Paul Sartre. Translated by John Calder from the French La Question. 123 pp. New York: George Braziller. $2.95". The New York Times. Retrieved October 28, 2019.
  8. ^ Italie, Hillel (March 19, 2017). "George Braziller, independent publisher who gave early boosts to literary greats, dies at 101". The Washington Post.
  9. ^ "About". Persea Books. Retrieved October 28, 2019.
  10. ^ The Illustrations, lib.asu.edu. Retrieved 17 January 2023.
  11. ^ Book review: The Great American Artists Series, Lloyd Goodrich, Albert P. Ryder, 128 pp., 86 ill. (16 in color); Fairfield Porter, Thomas Eakins, 127 pp., 89 ill. [16 in color); Lloyd Goodrich, Winslow Homer, 127 pp., 99 ill. (16 in color); E. C. Goossen, Stuart Davis, 128 pp., 82 ill. (16 in color); Frank O'Hara, Jackson Pollock, 125 pp., 91 ill. (16 in color); Thomas B. Hess, Willem de Kooning, 128 pp., 161 ill. (16 in color), tandfonline.com, Art Journal, Volume 20, 1960 - Issue 1, pages 52-56. Retrieved 17 January 2023.
  12. ^ Andrea Mantegna: Padua and Mantua (Great Fresco Cycles of the Renaissance), georgebraziller.com. Retrieved 17 January 2023.
  13. ^ Masters of World Architecture, librarything.com. Retrieved 17 January 2023.
  14. ^ "Medieval Manuscripts", The Hudson Review, Vol. 37, No. 2 (Summer, 1984), p. 300. Retrieved 17 January 2023.
  15. ^ The Braziller Series of Australian Poets, georgebraziller.com. Retrieved 17 January 2023.

Further reading

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  • George Braziller, Encounters: My Life in Publishing, New York: George Braziller, Inc., 2015.
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