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 acquired by Random House, and André Schiffrin was hired as executive editor, who continued to publish important works, by both European and American writers, until he was forced to resign in 1990 by Random House owner Samuel Irving Newhouse, Jr. and president Alberto Vitale. Several editors resigned in protest, and multiple Pantheon authors including Studs Terkel, Kurt Vonnegut, and Barbara Ehrenreich held a protest outside Random House. In 1998, Bertelsmann purchased Random House, and the imprint has undergone a number of corporate restructurings since then. It is now part of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group under Penguin Random House.Random House, Inc. Datamonitor Company Profiles Authority: Retrieved June 20, 2007, from EBSCO Host Business Source Premier database.

Dan Frank was Editorial Director from 1996 until his death in May 2021. Lisa Lucas joined the imprint in 2020 as Senior Vice President and Publisher.

History

Origins

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.Schiffrin, A. (2000). ''The Business of Books: How International Conglomerates Took Over Publishing and Changed the Way we Read''. London/New York: Verso. 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''.

Random House and André Schiffrin

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". The following year, Random House would buy Pantheon, which would be moved into the Knopf Publishing Group. Also in 1961, Pantheon hired André 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. In 1965, RCA bought Random House. Throughout the 1970s, Pantheon continued to publish intellectual and often leftist works of fiction and nonfiction "without a profit-and-loss sheet in sight".Engelhardt, T. (1990), "Pantheon purge", ''The Progressive'', 54(5), 46. 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.

S. I. Newhouse

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

In December 1989, Alberto Vitale, a former banker, replaced Robert L. Berstein as chairman and president of Random House. In February 1990, Schiffrin was "asked to resign after he refused to reduce the number of titles published y Pantheonor to trim Pantheon's 30-member staff". 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. 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. 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.

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". 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".

Bertelsmann

In 1998, Random House made news again when it was bought by Bertelsmann. 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,Miller, M. C. (March 26, 1998)
"And then there were seven"
Opinion, ''The New York Times'', p. A.27. making Bertelsmann the largest publisher of American books.

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". 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.

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". 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."

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.

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. Another key member of the Pantheon Graphic Novels team is graphic designer Chip Kidd.

Recently Pantheon has moved aggressively into the comics market. In 2000, Pantheon published ''The Acme Novelty Library'' by Chris Ware. 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".Pantheon web site.
/ref> Notable cartoonists whose graphic novels have been published by Pantheon include Spiegelman, Ware, Dan Clowes, Charles Burns, Ben Katchor, Marjane Satrapi, and David Mazzucchelli.

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.

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.

Select bibliography

Literature and criticism

* ''Force and Freedom: Reflections on History'' by Jacob Burckhardt (1943)
* ''The World is Not Enough'' by Zoé Oldenbourg (1948)
* '' The Hero with a Thousand Faces'' by Joseph Campbell (1949)
* '' The I Ching; or, Book of Changes'' translated by Richard Wilhelm and Cary F. Baynes (1950). Contains an extensive Introduction by Carl Jung. Originally issued in two volumes – subsequently in one volume.
* ''Winds'' by Saint-John Perse (1953)
* ''The Collected Works of Paul Valéry in English'', 15 Volumes and Bibliography, '' Bollingen Series XLV'', General Editor Jackson Mathews, Various Translators, Published by Pantheon Books, New York. Volume One issued in 1956, with later volumes following in the ensuing years.
* '' Doctor Zhivago'' by Boris Pasternak (first published in 1957; later published in 1959)
* ''The Tin Drum'' by Günter Grass (1963)
* ''Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason'' by Michel Foucault (1965)
* ''Division Street: America'' by Studs Terkel (1967)
* '' American Power and the New Mandarins'' by Noam Chomsky (1969)
* ''At War with Asia'' by Noam Chomsky (1970)
* '' Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression'' by Studs Terkel (1970)
* ''The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences'' by Michel Foucault (1970)
* ''Problems of Knowledge and Freedom'' by Noam Chomsky (1971)
* ''The Archaeology of Knowledge'' by Michel Foucault (1972)
* ''For Reasons of State'' by Noam Chomsky (1973)
* ''Peace in the Middle East: Reflections on Justice and Nationhood'' by Noam Chomsky (1974)
* '' Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do'' by Studs Terkel (1974)
* ''Mississippi: Conflict & Change'' by James Loewen and Charles Sallis (1974)
* ''Reflections on Language'' by Noam Chomsky (1975)
* ''Sound Effects: Youth, Leisure, and the Politics of Rock'n'Roll'' by Simon Frith (1981)
* ''When Things of the Spirit Come First: Five Early Tales'' by Simone de Beauvoir (1982)
* ''The Empire's Old Clothes: What the Lone Ranger, Babar, and Other Innocent Heroes Do to Our Minds'' by Ariel Dorfman (1983)
* ''Adieux: A Farewell to Sartre'' by Simone de Beauvoir (1984)
* ''After The Second Sex: Conversations with Simone de Beauvoir'' by Alice Schwarzer and Simone de Beauvoir (1984)
* ''The Lover'' by Marguerite Duras (1985)
* ''Women Writing About Men'' by Jane Miller (1986)
* ''The Woman Destroyed'' by Simone de Beauvoir (1987)
* ''The Sadeian Woman and the Ideology of Pornography'' by Angela Carter (1988)
* '' Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media'' by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky
* ''The Death of Rhythm & Blues'' by Nelson George (1988)
* ''On Record: Rock, Pop, and the Written Word'' by Simon Frith and Andrew Goodwin (1990)
* ''Stop the Violence: Overcoming Self Destruction'' by Nelson George (1990)
* ''The Book of Disquiet'' by Fernando Pessoa (1991)
* ''Felix: The Twisted Tale of the World's Most Famous Cat'' by John Canemaker (1991)
* ''Rhythm Oil: A Journey Through the Music of the American South'' by Stanely Booth (1991)
* ''Pasolini Requiem'' by Barth D. Schwartz (1992)
* ''Einstein's Dreams'' by Alan Lightman (1993)
* ''The Birth of the Beat Generation: Visionaries, Rebels, and Hipsters, 1944–1960'' by Steven Watson (1995)
* ''Deep Sightings and Rescue Missions: Fiction, Essays, and Conversations'' by Toni Cade Bambara and Toni Morrison (1996)
* ''In the Country of Country: People and Places in American Music'' by Nicholas Dawidoff (1997)
* '' Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday'' by Angela Davis (1998)
* ''Holy Clues: Investigating Life's Mysteries with Sherlock Holmes'' by Stephen Kendrick (1999)
* '' House of Leaves'' by Mark Z. Danielewski (2000)
* '' The Whalestoe Letters'' by Mark Z. Danielewski (2000)
* ''Parallels and Paradoxes: Explorations in Music and Society'' by Daniel Barenboim, Edward W. Said, and Ara Guzelimian (2002)
* ''Boogaloo: The Quintessence of American Popular Music'' by Arthur Kempton (2003)
* ''Against Love: A Polemic'' by Laura Kipnis (2003)
* ''The End of Blackness: Returning the Souls of Black Folk to Their Rightful Owners'' by Debra Dickerson (2004)
* ''Give our Regards to the Atomsmashers! Writers on Comics'' by Sean Howe (2004)
* ''Shakespeare After All'' by Marjorie B. Garber (2004)
* ''Tango: The Art History of Love'' by Robert Farris Thompson (2005)
* ''On Michael Jackson'' by Margo Jefferson (2006)
* '' Only Revolutions'' by Mark Z. Danielewski (2006)
* ''The Good Husband of Zebra Drive'' by Alexander McCall Smith (2007)
* ''The Little Book of Plagiarism'' by Alexander Posner (2007)
* ''Bambi vs. Godzilla: On the Nature, Purpose, and Practice of the Movie Business'' by David Mamet (2007)
* ''Toussaint Louverture: A Biography'' by Madison Smartt Bell (2007)
* ''The Father of all Things: A Marine, His Son, and the Legacy of Vietnam'' by Tom Bissell (2007)
* '' Soon I Will Be Invincible'' by Austin Grossman (2007)
* '' SUM'' by David Eagleman (2009)
* '' Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain'' by David Eagleman (2011)
* '' The Accidental Universe'' by Alan Lightman (2014)
* '' The Familiar, Volume 1: One Rainy Day in May'' by Mark Z. Danielewski (2015)
* '' The Familiar, Volume 2: Into the Forest'' by Mark Z. Danielewski (2015)
* '' The Brain: The Story of You'' by David Eagleman (2015)
* ''The Familiar, Volume 3: Honeysuckle & Pain'' by Mark Z. Danielewski (2016)
* ''The Familiar, Volume 4: Hades'' by Mark Z. Danielewski (2017)
* ''The Familiar, Volume 5: Redwood'' by Mark Z. Danielewski (2017)
* ''Livewired: The Inside Story of the Ever-Changing Brain'' by David Eagleman (2020)

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)
* ''Egyptian Religious Texts and Representations'' by Alexandre Piankoff and Natacha Rambova (1954)
* ''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)
** ''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)
* '' Habibi'' by Craig Thompson (2011)
* '' The Cardboard Valise'' by Ben Katchor (2011)
* '' My Brother's Husband'' by Gengoroh Tagame (2014)

References

External links

*
Finding aid to Pantheon Books records at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.Finding aid to André Schiffrin papers at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.Pantheon Books
a
Database – Jewish Publishers of German Literature in Exile, 1933-1945

{{Authority control

Random House
Book publishing companies based in New York (state)
Comic book publishing companies of the United States
Publishers of adult comics
Publishing companies established in 1942
Publishing companies based in New York City
1942 establishments in New York City
1961 mergers and acquisitions