Harper's Magazine

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Lore & Background

In 1969, the editor-in-chief of Harper's Magazine, Willie Morris, convinced John Cowles Jr., whose family had acquired both the magazine and Harper & Row, that a new imprint could benefit both entities. He appointed Herman C. Gollob as editor-in-chief of the press. Gollob said he had 'the freedom to operate almost as I pleased.' '[I] almost feel guilty,' Gollob said when the press launched, 'to be hurling a few more books at the public.' He had worked at Little, Brown for five years, and reminisced that, 'Little, Brown once had a slogan which said, “Fewer and better books.” Ain’t a bad slogan.' In June 1969, in what was thought to be the press's first big break, it announced that 'a definitive book about the motion picture career of Orson Welles,' co-written by Welles and Peter Bogdanovich, would be issued the next year. The book was to include 'extensive memos, telegrams and letters Welles wrote R.K.O. after the studio cut almost an hour out of The Magnificent Ambersons,' a '30-page memorandum' critiquing some of the music used in The Lady from Shanghai, and transcripts of some of the '75 hours of taped interviews' the two had so far recorded. In August 1970, the book was said to be scheduled for the following summer. However, the book was not completed before the publishing house folded. It was ultimately published in 1992 by HarperCollins. After Morris resigned under pressure from the magazine in the summer of 1971, Gollob also left, and went to work for Atheneum. He said, 'The party—and a hell of a party it had been—was over.' Lawrence Freundlich replaced him as editor-in-chief.

Reader's Guide

The press was the venue for many authors' first books. That same year Gollob left, the press published the first book written by Bill Moyers, who was just beginning his work for PBS. Under Freundlich, it published the first books of Fred Feldkamp, Phyllis Feldkamp, Philip J. Hilts, Mark Lipman, Lev Navrozov, Richard Selzer, Nancy Hunter Steiner, Richard Shulman, Ferris Urbanowski, and Min S. Yee. The press published Marcella Hazan’s debut, The Classic Italian Cookbook, in 1973. Julia Child recommended it, referring to its author as 'my mentor in all things Italian.' The book sold poorly and Hazan, feeling it was mishandled, took it to a different publisher. She went on to publish seven more books, shape Italian cuisine in the U.S., and win lifetime achievement awards from both the James Beard Foundation and the International Association of Culinary Professionals (2000, 2004). In 1974, the press had its greatest critical and commercial success with another new author: Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, which sold extraordinarily well, was made a Book of the Month Club main selection. Within the next year, 'a public auction was held for the paperback rights, an unprecedented coup for a first book published by a small publishing house,' and it won a Pulitzer Prize. It was regarded at the time as 'an important new book by an important young writer,' and has since been called 'the Walden of our time.' New Yorker editor David Remnick notes that it 'is acknowledged as a classic almost universally.'

Did You Know?

• The press was founded in New York City in 1969 and published its last books in 1976.
• Its first big break was a planned book on Orson Welles's film career, co-written by Welles and Peter Bogdanovich, but it was never completed before the press folded.
• Marcella Hazan's debut, The Classic Italian Cookbook (1973), was recommended by Julia Child but sold poorly; Hazan later won lifetime achievement awards from the James Beard Foundation and the International Association of Culinary Professionals.
• Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (1974) was the press's greatest critical and commercial success, winning a Pulitzer Prize and becoming a Book of the Month Club main selection.
• The press published the first books of Bill Moyers, Richard Selzer, and Philip J. Hilts, among others.