![]() ![]() What is it that makes a book last? I am looking for a book that still has the power to surprise: not just shock effects, but some sense of lived experience that is still palpable. They have remembered that there is life elsewhere. Our endeavour, and that of some other small presses, has thrived in this period because people have kicked against first Bush’s and now Trump’s America. How important is it to publish voices from elsewhere at a time when the US government is encouraging the country to turn in on itself? I’m probably deluding myself, but I think it’s very important. They’re awakened by the project as a whole. People might see a book they remember having loved, pick up anew and that might in turn lead them to take a look at books, also published by us, that they’ve never heard of. What I mean is that there is a certain logic in our eclecticism: it has multiple entry points. There is a way in which the series sells the series. They know that the old Sex and the City is not the new Sex and the City. How do the books reach readers? I used to say things like: can we pitch this as the old Sex and the City? But I don’t think readers are fooled. About six months after we began, I was talking to this very distinguished publisher about Joyce Cary, and he said: “Oh, yes… how many of his books did we sell last year? Was it 69?” It had never crossed my mind that any book I thought of as interesting would sell as few copies as that.Īnd yet the list is a success. When you first mooted the idea of a classics list to Rea Hederman, the owner of the New York Review of Books, did it seem a little preposterous, even to you? At the time, I don’t think I knew how unlikely an enterprise it was. NYRB Classics celebrates its 20th birthday this year, an anniversary it marked last month with the publication of The Red Thread, a selection (edited by Frank) of extracts from some of its books. Among the writers on its eclectic list are Eve Babitz, Colette, JG Farrell, Mavis Gallant, Tove Jansson, Olivia Manning, Janet Malcolm, Alexander Pushkin, Elizabeth Taylor, and Stefan Zweig. ![]() Edwin Frank is a poet and the founder and editorial director of the NYRB Classics series, a publisher of old books and new translations. ![]()
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