New Directions is leading the charge to find and publish relevant South American authors. This of course has much to do with the fact that they have benefited from having published the works of Robeto Bolano. This of course means we will all benefit from some wonderful novels and stories that otherwise would have escaped our notice.
Unlike a lot of other publishers who work in the same field as New Directions, ND has always maintained one important piece of street-cred. Namely that they do the and editing foot work. New York Review of Books and even smaller firms like Melville House have benefited from clever editors and directors. The Hans Fallada titles by Melville House are republished translations (see below). NYRB has reissued many of the Pushkin Press' innovative titles and made them available to a US readership that might not have had them otherwise.
Still, kudos are due to New Directions, who have consistently pioneered a front and back list that is truly without bounds.
In this week's Phoenix I review The She-Devil In The Mirror by Horacio Castellanos Moya.
Here is your link to the piece. Enjoy.
(from above)
As Dennis Johnson of Melville House fame pointed out, I was wrong to label the Fallada titles as reprints, which I was mostly mistaken about.
This all hurts a little. Melville House is one of the organizations I created the blog to promote. I'm a big boy though. The tears will subside. The pages will turn regardless of base slander and suffered arrows. And there is always this promotion work to support them still.
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2 comments:
Correction: Melville House's Every Man Dies Alone, by Hans Fallada is a new translation (by Michael Hoffman) of a book never before translated into English. In fact, almost all of the translated fiction and nonfiction we publish, even in our public domain classics line, is in new translation.
Dennis Johnson
publisher, Melville House
Ouch.
I love the work of Melville House. Publishing houses like Melville House and Archipelago Press are pillars of American publishing. If you look at some of my other comments on this blog you will see that I am not saying this lightly. I respect your work.
In the same small paper I reviewed Bonsai by Alejandro Zambra, which is a very good book.
In any case, I applaud the publication of works like The Drinker, whether derivative or not. The point is that the book was not available and Melville House saw it back into print.
I don't even like knocking Dover because many of the books they bring to print are unavailable otherwise.
Especially when care is taken to bringing it back to print. I in no way wanted to imply that Melville House (whose contemporary novella line is one of the most innovative going) is milking the public domain. I was somewhat clumsy nonetheless.
I will wear the egg for this clumsy post. You guys are heroes in my book.
This did answer a question that I have been wondering about since my bookselling days. Namely that "reprint" when combined with "public domain" is a dirty word. I kid.
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