The Books of Ruth
Times Books reissues Gruber's Jewish refugee classics, in time to tie into a CBS miniseries
A pioneering female scholar, journalist, diplomat and a witness to the founding of Israel, 88-year-old Ruth Gruber has spent her life documenting the plight of the European refugees of World War II. This month, Times Books is reprinting the first of two books by this remarkable woman, and will release a third book in fall 2000.
Just released is Exodus 1947, originally published in 1948 by Current Books as Destination Palestine, an account of a ship holding 4500 Jewish refugees bound for Israel in defiance of the British blockade of Palestine. It seems hard to believe today, in a time when the media offer blanket coverage of refugee crises, but Gruber was the only journalist--not to mention the only female journalist--to cover this incredible journey. The book has been credited with being the force that impelled the United Nations to recognize Israel in 1948 and has been cited as the inspiration for Leon Uris's bestselling novel Exodus and for the subsequent film.
In April Times Books will re-release Haven: The Unknown Story of 1000 World War II Refugees, the basis for a CBS miniseries that will air in May 2000. Originally published in 1983 by Putnam, Haven is an equally remarkable account of the transformation of 1000 mostly Jewish war survivors into hopeful immigrants on the road to becoming Americans. The book is the chronicle of a secret mission, ordered by President Roosevelt in 1944 and led by Gruber, that shepherded a shipload of brave refugees out of Italy and delivered them to an abandoned army camp near Oswego, N.Y., and to new lives. The book boasts a new introduction by bestselling nonfiction author Dava Sobel, who happens to be Gruber's niece.
And while Times Books is giving Gruber's works a second life, these are more than simple reprints. Gruber, who has written 13 books, has returned to her notebooks from the period and revised both books with new material. Exodus 1947 includes more than 100 photographs, published together for the first time, taken by her while she covered the war refugees for the New York Post and the New York Herald Tribune. Philip Turner, executive editor of Times Books, told PW that Gruber has added "more than 20,000 words," to Exodus 1947 (including a new first chapter and material throughout the book). "She's worked on it like a new book," he noted.
Turner, a former bookseller, remembered selling Gruber's Haven and Raquela, a biography of Raquela Prywes, an ordinary Israeli woman whose life history mirrored the founding and development of Israel, which Times will re-publish in fall 2000. He first met Gruber at a dinner when Sobel's Longitude was published. After joining Times Books, Turner approached Peter Sawyer, Gruber's agent at the Fifi Oscard Agency, about bringing her works back into print.
Gruber has led some life. She was born in Brooklyn, graduated from the University of Wisconsin and went on to study at the University of Cologne in Germany in the 1930s, as the Nazis came to power. She received her Ph.D. at 20 and became a war foreign correspondent at time when "the men didn't think women were smart or brave," she told PW. "I was the maverick in my family," she recalled. "They couldn't control me."
First printing for Exodus 1947 was "solid but modest," said Times Books publicity director Mary Beth Roche, who declined to give the exact figures, but said the book has already gone back to press. Haven is slated for 25,000 copies, but Roche expects that number to range upward quickly. There will be print advertising in the Jewish press.
Turner also noted that Gruber is still a working journalist and public speaker. An eight-city book tour grew quickly to 19 cities (and added more copies to the print run) once Times Books considered Gruber's typically hectic schedule of appearances and speaking engagements.
Haven will be presented in print and on screen thanks to CBS. But this isn't the first time Gruber has been involved in film. Her presence and her photographs were central to The Long Way Home, the 1998 documentary on Holocaust survivors. Gruber told PW that she has written a 30-page epilogue to Haven covering "what happened to me afterwards" and noted, "It's been wonderful to see my books come back to life. These two experiences [recounted in Exodus 1947 and Haven] changed my life."
SMALL PRESS SUCCESS
Bard Press's Biz Book Hit
Many people may think that New York City is the epicenter of advertising expertise. But tiny Austin, Texas based Bard Press is proving that conventional wisdom wrong with its current runaway hit, Secret Formulas of the Wizard of Ads, a slightly oversized, illustrated book of folksy tips aimed at the key target audience of small- to mid-size businesses and written by Texas ad exec Roy H. Williams.
The just released book is selling at such a velocity that it debuted as the #1 business book on the Wall Street Journal's bestseller list of September 17, and stayed at #3 the following week. Publisher Ray Bard told PW that he's now going back for a third printing, which will bring the title to a total of 100,000 copies.
While Bard was surprised when the book debuted so strongly on the WSJ list, he wasn't completely shocked, since Williams's previous book, The Wizard of Ads, published by National Book Network-distributed Bard last year, has been a 35,000-copy-plus sleeper hit for the house. That track record allowed for a much higher initial sell-in for Williams's second book--25,000 copies, compared to the first book's 6600-copy sell-in--which led to greater display promotion. Also, Bard gave the new book a boost by paying for a co-op ad on Amazon.com, which featured the book in its business section just as it was being released.
Bard believes Williams's books sell well for a variety of reasons, not least of which is that the author is a frequent speaker on the lecture circuit and a regular guest on radio shows. A lot of media outlets jumped on Williams's book right away this time, since he proved a popular guest with his first.
Williams in fact originally got into the book business because a booker for one of his speaking engagements noted, "And of course, you must have a book."
He didn't, but quickly collected the rather amusing, somewhat mystical memos he writes to his troops every Monday into a self-published book.
He then sent a deputy to BEA to hustle up a publishing deal. After meetings with bigger houses, including Wiley and McGraw-Hill, the deputy responded most to Bard, which carefully selects only five or so books to publish per year and at the time was experiencing a hit with 1996's Nuts!: Southwest Airlines' Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success.
Bard read Wizard on the plane home from BEA and was captivated by Williams's stories, which he believes convey anecdotal charm that is similar to radio personality (and Bantam author) Paul Harvey. "And imagine my surprise," Bard said, "when I discovered the author lives only a few miles away." --J.Q.
IN THE NEWS
Hizzoner, the Handseller
Thanks to his hue and cry over the Brooklyn Museum of Art exhibition "Sensation: Young British Artists from the Saatchi Collection," New York City major Rudy Giuliani is helping Abrams move a $125 art book and Thames & Hudson has experienced a 150% jump in sales of the exhibition catalogue.
The mayor made headlines in late September by claiming the artwork in the exhibition, particularly Chris Ofili's elephant dung-dappled painting The Holy Virgin Mary," was "sick stuff."
At press time, Giuliani's threat to pull millions in city funding for the museum is being legally contested.
Whatever happens, however, the controversy is helping to sell books, as more and more readers and booksellers want a peek at what all the fuss is about and, no doubt, desire to show some First Amendment support.
Abrams is down to about 600 copies of a 2000-copy print run of the Booth-Clibborn Editions title Young British Art: The Saatchi Decade, a 600-plus-page, $125 hardcover record of about 800 works in the 1000-work--only a portion of which is on exhibition. On September 24, Baker & Taylor ordered 85 copies (its original 10-copy order had sold out), and Abrams sales management personally delivered some 85 additional copies to fill demand at more than 20 NYC stores.
Young British Art is part of a loose and ongoing series on contemporary British artists published by U.K.-based Booth-Clibborn, including a monograph on the work of Damien Hurst (creator of the maggot-infested cow's head on display), previously published here by Monacelli Press. According to Booth-Clibborn spokesman Simon Gwynn, the British publisher is investigating distribution arrangements in the U.S. and hopes to launch its own imprint in the U.S. market by January.
Thames & Hudson has the official Sensation catalogue, a $29.95 paperback available in this country since spring 1998, shortly after the exhibit first was displayed in London's Royal Academy of Art. Giuliani in fact hasn't seen the exhibition, and was responding to the artwork seen in T&H's book.
T&H's U.S. director, Peter Warner, is making as much use of the publicity as possible, sending booksellers easel cards with a most unusual blurb: "Sick stuff... I'm offended.... This is an outrageous thing to do," by one R. Giuliani.
Already planning to go back to press before the exhibit was to open, T&H now has a second reprint in the works. These printings will bring the book up to 10,000 copies in print, up from an original 2500 first printing, a jump that's "pretty unusual for our market," said Warner.
Both publishers believe the high media profile of the exhibit will continue, and rise to national levels as the network morning shows and newsweeklies pick up on the story. Abrams is highlighting such attention by offering booksellers a mounted easel-backed poster that features the jacket art with a copy of the first, front-page New York Times piece on the controversy.
There's also talk that the exhibit might travel throughout the country, which would further boost book sales.
Verso is certainly hoping the exhibition's heightened profile continues: it's releasing Oxford art critic Julian Stallabrass's High Art Lite: British Art in the 1990s in December.
And finally, at press time, another handseller was a-rising: Hillary Clinton is telling the world that Giuliani, her possible competitor in the upcoming U.S. senatorial race, made the "very wrong response" to the situation. But she also said she wouldn't personally go to the exhibition--a comment that may, in the end, further spur book sales.
