Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.

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The Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. is a publisher , who in 1915 by Alfred Abraham button Sr. and his wife Blanche Wolf button was founded. It was bought by Random House in 1960 and has been part of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group at Random House, which is owned by Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA , since 2009 . The publisher is known for a trademark that Blanche Wolf Knopf himself designed based on a Barzoi , a Russian greyhound.

history

Knopf was founded in 1915 and officially run as a company in 1918 with Alfred Abraham Knopf Sr. as President, Blanche Wolf Knopf as Vice President and Alfred’s father Samuel Knopf as CFO. The Knopfs traveled a lot and found new authors who were unknown in America. In 1942 Blanche Knopf traveled to South America and brought a number of books to the publishing house from there. Alfred Knopf also acquired new authors on a trip to Brazil in 1961. Blanche Knopf was also one of the first to travel through Europe in search of authors after the end of the war in 1945. With its publications of literature from Europe, Asia and Latin America, the Knopf-Verlag has again and again shaped the American literary scene.

Even after Samuel Knopf's death in 1932, Alfred and Blanche Knopf controlled the publishing house. After the war, their son Alfred 'Pat' Jr. joined them as sales manager. When Alfred Knopf took over as chairman of the board in 1957, Blanche Knopf became president of the publishing house and remained so until her death in 1966. Alfred Knopf did not resign until 1972, but remained in the company as a senior until his death in 1984. William A. Koshland, who had been with Knopf since 1934, was President and CEO of the publishing house until Alfred Knopf's death. Until 1988, Knopf also published school books. Then Random House sold the entire textbook division to McGraw-Hill .

In addition to the Knopfs, the editors took over the dedicated search for new authors. Some of the most influential include Harold Strauss (for Japanese literature), Herbert Weinstock (composer biographies), Judith Jones (cookbooks), Angus Cameron , Charles Elliott, Lee Goerner, Robert Gottlieb , Ashbel Green, Carol Brown Janeway , Michael Magzis, Anne McCormick , Nancy Nicholas, Daniel Okrent, Regina Ryan, Sophie Wilkins and Vicky Wilson. Knopf also employed literary scouts.

Knopf is a well-known editor of sophisticated literature. The authors John Banville , Max Beerbohm , Carl Bernstein , Willa Cather , Julia Child , Bill Clinton , Michael Crichton , Joan Didion , Bret Easton Ellis , James Ellroy , Anne Frank , Daniel Goldhagen , Carl Hiaasen , Kazuo Ishiguro , Thomas Kean are published , John Keegan , Christopher Lasch , Jack London , Thomas Mann , Gabriel García Márquez , Cormac McCarthy , Henry L. Mencken , Toni Morrison , Steven Millhauser , Alice Munro , Haruki Murakami , PD Ouspensky , Christopher Paolini , Ezra Pound , Anne Rice , Dorothy Richardson , Donna Tartt , Anne Tyler , John Updike , Andrew Vachss , Carl Van Vechten , James D. Watson , Edmund White, and Elinor Wylie . The authors include 17 Nobel Prize winners in literature and 47 winners of the renowned American Pulitzer Prize .

The Knopf-Verlag also made a name for itself because book design and typography are taken very seriously in book production and the publisher has repeatedly employed important graphic designers.

literature

  • Alfred A. Knopf: Portrait of a Publisher , 1915–1965. 2 volumes. Typophiles, New York 1965.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ McGraw-Hill Is Buying 2 Random House Units
  2. ↑ Knopf, Alfred A .: Portrait of a Publisher, 1915–1965 . 2 volumes. New York: Typophiles, 1965.
  3. ↑ David Oshinsky: No Thanks, Mr. Nabokov . The New York Times . September 9, 2007. Retrieved July 4, 2009.
  4. ↑ Button: Then and Now . AIGA / NY. October 21, 2009. Archived from the original on June 16, 2010. Retrieved on April 6, 2010.