André Schiffrin
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André Schiffrin (June 14, 1935 – December 1, 2013) was a French-American author, publisher and socialist.


Life

Schiffrin was born in
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
, the son of Jacques Schiffrin, a
Russian Jew The history of the Jews in Russia and areas historically connected with it goes back at least 1,500 years. Jews in Russia have historically constituted a large religious and ethnic diaspora; the Russian Empire at one time hosted the largest po ...
who emigrated to France and briefly enjoyed success there as publisher of the ''
Bibliothèque de la Pléiade The ''Bibliothèque de la Pléiade'' (, "Pleiades Library") is a French editorial collection which was created in 1931 by Jacques Schiffrin, an independent young editor. Schiffrin wanted to provide the public with reference editions of the ...
'', which he founded, and which was bought by Gallimard, until he was dismissed because of the
anti-Jewish Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...
laws enforced by the
Vichy regime Vichy France (; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was a French rump state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II, established as a result of the French capitulation after the defeat against ...
. Jacques Schiffrin and his family had to flee and eventually found refuge in the United States. As the younger Schiffrin recalls in his autobiography, ''A Political Education: Coming of Age in Paris and New York'' (2007), he thus experienced life in two countries as a child of a European Jewish intellectual family. He attended
Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...
, where he won the
Alpheus Henry Snow Prize Alpheus Henry Snow (November 8, 1859 – August 19, 1920) was an American lawyer and scholarly investigator in the field of international law. Biography Snow was born in Claremont, New Hampshire, where he was a student at the Stevens High School ...
, and
Clare College, Cambridge Clare College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. The college was founded in 1326 as University Hall, making it the second-oldest surviving college of the Unive ...
, where he studied English on a
Mellon Fellowship The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, commonly known as the Mellon Foundation, is a New York City-based private foundation with wealth accumulated by Andrew Mellon of the Mellon family of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is the product of the 1969 merger ...
for two years and edited the student literary magazine ''
Granta ''Granta'' is a literary magazine and publisher in the United Kingdom whose mission centres on its "belief in the power and urgency of the story, both in fiction and non-fiction, and the story's supreme ability to describe, illuminate and make ...
''. As a socialist, Schiffrin opposed both the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia and the U.S. war in Vietnam. He was one of the founders of the
Student League for Industrial Democracy (1946-1959) Student League for Industrial Democracy may refer to two organizations, both student affiliates of the adult League for Industrial Democracy: * Student League for Industrial Democracy (1930s), which changed its name to Intercollegiate League for In ...
, the organization that became
Students for a Democratic Society Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) was a national student activist organization in the United States during the 1960s and was one of the principal representations of the New Left. Disdaining permanent leaders, hierarchical relationships a ...
. In 1968, he signed the "
Writers and Editors War Tax Protest Tax resistance, the practice of refusing to pay taxes that are considered unjust, has probably existed ever since rulers began imposing taxes on their subjects. It has been suggested that tax resistance played a significant role in the collapse o ...
" pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War."Writers and Editors War Tax Protest", ''New York Post'', January 30, 1968. Schiffrin was the managing director of publishing at
Pantheon Books Pantheon Books is an American book publishing imprint. Founded in 1942 as an independent publishing house in New York City by Kurt and Helen Wolff, it specialized in introducing progressive European works to American readers. In 1961, it was ...
, where he was partially responsible for introducing the works of Pasternak,
Foucault Paul-Michel Foucault ( , ; ; 15 October 192625 June 1984) was a French historian of ideas and philosopher who was also an author, literary critic, political activist, and teacher. Foucault's theories primarily addressed the relationships be ...
and others to
American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...
readers. Schiffrin's 28-year period at Pantheon, a division of Random House, came to an end in 1990 when CEO Alberto Vitale sacked him because of a conflict over the division's losses and the downsizing that Vitale wished to make. In 1992 Schiffrin, with former Pantheon colleague Diane Wachtell, established the non-profit
The New Press The New Press is an independent non-profit public-interest book publisher established in 1992 by André SchiffrinReid, Calvin (December 2, 2013)"New Press Founder André Schiffrin Dead at 78" ''Publishers Weekly''. Accessed August 1, 2014. (Chev ...
, explaining that he did so because of economic trends that prevented him from publishing the serious books he thought should be made available. Schiffrin discussed what he regarded as the crisis in western publishing in his book ''The Business of Books: How the International Conglomerates Took Over Publishing and Changed the Way We Read'' (2000). In 2011, Schiffrin was made a
Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and civil. Currently consisting of five classes, it was o ...
by the French government. Schiffrin's daughter, journalist
Anya Schiffrin Anya Schiffrin (born December 6, 1962) is the director of the Technology, Media, and Communications (TMaC) specialization at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), and a senior lecturer at the School of Internati ...
, is married to the economist and Nobel Prize winner
Joseph Stiglitz Joseph Eugene Stiglitz (; born February 9, 1943) is an American New Keynesian economist, a public policy analyst, political activist, and a professor at Columbia University. He is a recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (2 ...
. His daughter Natalia is married to international lawyer
Philippe Sands Philippe Joseph Sands, KC FRSLbr>Hon FBA(born 17 October 1960) is a British and French writer and lawyer at 11 King's Bench Walk and Professor of Laws and Director of the Centre on International Courts and Tribunals at University College Londo ...
. Schiffrin died on December 1, 2013, in Paris from
pancreatic cancer Pancreatic cancer arises when cell (biology), cells in the pancreas, a glandular organ behind the stomach, begin to multiply out of control and form a Neoplasm, mass. These cancerous cells have the malignant, ability to invade other parts of ...
.


Works

* ''L'édition sans éditeurs'' (1999), * ''The Business of Books: How the International Conglomerates Took Over Publishing and Changed the Way We Read'' (2000), (Hardback ) **Published in German as ''Verlage ohne Verleger. Über die Zukunft der Bücher. Mit einem Nachwort von Klaus Wagenbach'', translated by Gerd Burger; Berlin: Verlag Klaus Wagenbach, 2000, * ''Le contrôle de la parole'' (2005), * ''A Political Education: Coming of Age in Paris and New York'' (
Melville House Publishing Melville House Publishing is an American independent publisher of literary fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. The company was founded in 2001 and is run by the husband-and-wife team of Dennis Loy Johnson and Valerie Merians in Hoboken, New Jersey. ...
, 2007), **Published in French as ''Allers-retours : Paris-New York, un itinéraire politique'' (2007), **Published in German as ''Paris, New York und zurück. Politische Lehrjahre eines Verlegers'', translated by Andrea Marenzeller; Berlin: Matthes & Seitz, 2010, * (2010), * ''Words and Money'' (
Verso Books Verso Books (formerly New Left Books) is a publishing house based in London and New York City, founded in 1970 by the staff of ''New Left Review'' (NLR) and includes Tariq Ali and Perry Anderson on its board of directors. According to its webs ...
, 2010), Although there exist no English versions of ''L'édition sans éditeurs'' or ''Le contrôle de la parole'', there is some overlap of content between ''The Business of Books'' and the former.


See also

*
List of English-language book publishing companies This is a list of English-language book publishers. It includes imprints of larger publishing groups, which may have resulted from business mergers. Included are academic publishers, technical manual publishers, publishers for the traditional book ...


References


External links


André Schiffrin papers, 1944-2014
Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University, New York, NY {{DEFAULTSORT:Schiffrin, Andre 1935 births 2013 deaths 20th-century American writers 20th-century French Jews 21st-century American writers Alumni of Clare College, Cambridge American book publishers (people) American book publishing company founders American tax resisters American writers in French Deaths from pancreatic cancer in France French emigrants to the United States French people of Russian-Jewish descent Knights of the Legion of Honour Writers from Paris Yale University alumni