Richard Woodward Seaver (December 31, 1926 – January 5, 2009) was an American translator, editor and publisher. Seaver was instrumental in defying censorship, to bring to light works by authors such as

Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish writer of novels, plays, short stories, and poems. Writing in both English and French, his literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal, and Tragicomedy, tra ...

, Jean Genet, Henry Miller, William S. Burroughs, Hubert Selby,

Eugène Ionesco Eugène Ionesco (; ; born Eugen Ionescu, ; 26 November 1909 – 28 March 1994) was a Romanian-French playwright who wrote mostly in French, and was one of the foremost figures of the French avant-garde theatre#Avant-garde, French avant-garde th ...

, E. M. Cioran, D. H. Lawrence,

Jack Kerouac Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac (; March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969), known as Jack Kerouac, was an American novelist and poet who, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, was a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Of French-Canadian ...

Robert Coover Robert Lowell Coover (February 4, 1932 – October 5, 2024) was an American novelist, Short story, short story writer, and T. B. Stowell Professor Emeritus in Literary Arts at Brown University. He is generally considered a writer of fabulation ...

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and the Marquis de Sade.

Life

Seaver was born in Watertown, Connecticut, on December 31, 1926. He graduated from the

University of North Carolina The University of North Carolina is the Public university, public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referre ...

. After graduation he taught

high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...

briefly before he traveled abroad to Paris and the Sorbonne while writing his dissertation on

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influentia ...

. While a Fulbright scholar in Paris, writing his thesis on James Joyce at the Sorbonne in the early 1950s, he co-founded the English-language literary quarterly '' Merlin'', which published early works by

and Jean Genet. In 1952, Seaver wrote an essay lauding the work of the then little-known novelist

. This essay became instrumental in Beckett's finding an American publisher and champion. While abroad, Seaver met Jeannette Medina, whom he married in 1953. Before returning to the United States and settling in New York City with his wife, he spent two years in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

. He and his wife of 55 years Jeannette ran

Arcade Publishing Arcade Publishing is an Imprint (trade name), imprint of the American book publisher Skyhorse Publishing, Skyhorse. Founded in 1988 by Richard Seaver and his wife Jeannette, it was originally an independent company publishing trade fiction and no ...

, from 1988 until his death.Weber, Bruce (January 7, 2009)
"Richard Seaver, Publisher, Dies at 82".
''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

''. In 1959, Seaver went to work for Grove Press, where he eventually rose to the position of editor in chief. In 1967, he was among more than 500 writers and editors who signed the " Writers and Editors War Tax Protest" pledge, vowing to refuse to pay the 10%

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

Tax surcharge proposed by president Johnson."Writers and Editors War Tax Protest" January 30, 1968 ''New York Post'' In 1971, he left Grove Press and went to work for Viking Press. After Viking, he became the president and publisher of

Holt, Rinehart and Winston Holt McDougal is an American publishing company, a division of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, that specializes in textbooks for use in high schools. The Holt name is derived from that of U.S. publisher Henry Holt (1840–1926), co-founder of ...

's trade division and then started his own company Arcade Publishing. In his memoir, Seaver recalls the moment in 1952, when he wrote a first, and seminal essay extolling the work of then-unknown Samuel Beckett. He was 25 and had just finished reading the novels '' Molloy'' and '' Malone Dies'', which he believed were masterpieces:

Death

Seaver died on January 5, 2009, in Manhattan, New York, after a heart attack.

References

External links

Richard Seaver, Publisher, Dies at 82 (''New York Times'')
* ttp://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/1107/prmID/483 Richard Seaver: The Terror of the Words (PEN American Center)br>Richard Seaver, éditeur de la Beat Generation (''Le Monde)Richard Seaver: A Literary Man of Great Taste by novelist John Irving (NPR)
* ttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-brown/richard-seaver-a-titan-of_b_171624.html Richard Seaver: A Titan of Publishing* {{DEFAULTSORT:Seaver, Richard 1926 births 2009 deaths American publishers (people) American tax resisters People from Watertown, Connecticut University of Paris alumni