Harvard University Press is preparing for the possibility of a hit. The scholarly publisher is pushing forward the release date of Ben Urwand's book, The Collaboration, after a piece in the New York Times touted the work as something "creating a stir" among fellow historians.
The book was scheduled for October 14, and is now set drop on October 1. The switch, a spokesperson for the press confirmed, is thanks to the Times article, which ran on June 25. Megan Beatie at Goldberg McDuffie, the outside public relations firm HUP has hired to help promote the book, said Urwand's fall lecture tour has also been expanded "as a result of the intense interest in the book from the New York Times article."
In the book, which is subtitled Hollywood's Pact With Hitler, Urwand asserts that Hollywood studios had closer ties to the Nazis than previously established. The Times got wind of the book, and Urwand--who is only 35, and began his research as a graduate student at UC Berkeley--after a story appeared in Tablet, the online Jewish news and culture magazine.
Despite some strong predictions about the book's possible performance--an Emory University professor told the Times Urwand could have a "blockbuster" on his hands--HUP has not altered Collaboration's first printing, which remains at 20,000.
