Seven Seas Publishers

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Seven Seas Publishers was a series for English-language literature published by the GDR publisher Volk und Welt , founded by Gertrude Heym, the wife of Stefan Heym , after returning from exile in America.

The original aim of the foundation was to ensure the publication of Heym's English-language works from the years of exile after an unsuccessful search for a publisher. The company was dissolved again in 1980.

The first Panther Books, as they were initially called, were published in 1953 by Paul List Verlag . In 1958 the Panther Books were finally given to the people and the world and renamed Seven Seas Publishers. In addition to literary classics ( Mark Twain , Walt Whitman ), Seven Seas mainly published fiction and popular science literature by authors from the left-wing political spectrum from the USA ( John Reed , William EB Du Bois , Albert Maltz , Ring Lardner Jr. , Abraham Polonsky , Alvah Bessie ) , Canada ( Farley Mowat ), Great Britain ( Ivor Montagu , AL Morton , Christopher Caudwell ), Ireland, South Africa ( Alex La Guma ), Australia ( Dymphna Cusack , Dorothy Hewett ) and Guyana ( Cheddi Jagan ).

In addition, books by English-speaking authors living in the GDR ( Walter Kaufmann , Frederick Rose ) and GDR authors ( Arnold Zweig , Bruno Apitz , Christa Wolf , Louis Fürnberg , Johannes Bobrowski , Anna Seghers , Günter de Bruyn , Fred Wander , Franz Fühmann ) have been published in English translation.

The books were mainly exported to non-socialist countries. India, for example, was a big market for Seven Seas Books; there they were often the starting point for further translations into regional languages.

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