News

The Classics Are Coming
Bridget Kinsella -- 8/21/00
The Modern Library expands its definition of classic into new areas and formats


The paperback classics go for a "new" look.
The folks at the Modern Library have been busy. At the end of this month, the Random House imprint will release the first two volumes in its Chronicles series, short histories on various topics, published in its signature little hardcover editions. Then, in September ML unrolls its new paperback Classics, a move that many booksellers say will bring new energy and life to the series.
"I wish I could say it was our idea," said ML director David Ebershoff, referring to the paperback classics. Eighteen months ago, Ebershoff said, he and the ML staff started having regular dinner meetings with independent booksellers around the country to hear their ideas about how to expand the Classics publishing program. "At any one of those dinners, they said, 'there's this funny thing about the Modern Library,'" Ebershoff told PW, " 'it's a great brand of classics, but you don't publish in one of the great means of distributing classics--the paperback.'"
What has Houghton Mifflin done to preserve N.Y.'s "Lost Treasures?"Click Here to find out!

Beginning in September the Modern Library will do just that, with six new paperback classics each month, all with new introductions by contemporary authors carefully and sometimes intriguingly matched to the titles. For instance, Katherine Harrison, author of The Kiss and Poison, provides a new intro to The Scarlet Letter, in which she views Hester Prynne as a prototypically independent modern woman. Other writers who have taken a crack at the classics in the series include Anna Quindlen on Pride and Prejudice, Mona Simpson on Anna Karenina, Diane Johnson on Jane Eyre and Robert Reich on The Wealth of Nations. Many booksellers agree that having a contemporary author take a look at something like the slave narratives of Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs brings new interest to the work.

"We can look at them now and think about what they mean today," said Michael Barnard, owner of Rakestraw Books in Danville, Calif. "We read these things not just because we have to, but because they are some of the best things written. This positions them in a way that makes them exciting and new again."

At the Book Stall at Chestnut Court in Winnetka, Ill., owner Roberta Rubin said she thinks the "name" authors lend credence to the series, which she expects will interest her customers. And there's another aspect she appreciates about the paperback classics: "It gives us another way to build up a backlist in our store, and I like that."

Given the new introductions, competitive prices ($5.95-14.95) and illustrations that appeal to a younger market, Barnes & Noble buyer Sal Cordaro said the Modern Library has hit upon "a very good idea." B&N plans to promote the paperbacks with endcaps in its top 100 stores, he told PW. "They are beautiful, which is why we don't want them just in the sections, spine out," he added. No one seemed too concerned about any overlap between the ML paperback Classics and similar series from other publishers, including Penguin, Norton and even B&N. "There's lots of editions out there," said Cordaro, "But Modern Library is one of the best known." Most booksellers agreed that there is room enough for several classic editions and thought the matches with contemporary authors would make the Modern Library titles stand out.
Brief histories in hardcover editions.
Landing the right author/subject match was an integral part of the Chronicles series as well. For each subject, the publisher sought a noted scholar in the field to write a brief history. The first four titles are Islam by Karen Armstrong, The Renaissance by Paul Johnson, The Balkans by Mark Mazower and The German Empire by Michael Sturmer. Ebershoff said there are 16 Chronicles (priced at $19.95) in the works and that the house plans to publish two per season for many seasons to come. "We are all strapped for time, and we are daunted by the thought of handing over $40, and then there's the prospect of 800 pages. These authors are serious scholars who can tackle such broad topics and boil them down to 200 pages," he said. "Even though these are brief books, they are written with a career's worth of study." Ebershoff said the Chronicles should not be seen as "for Dummies" books, a point not lost on Rakestraw's Barnard.
As much as he appreciates the hugely successful Dummies series from IDG, Barnard said, many of those titles talk down to people. "I'm willing to admit when I'm not an expert in something, although not often," he said. "But even though I may not be an expert on something, I'm not dumb." He said he sees the Chronicles as a continuation of the effort by the Modern Library to expand the meaning of classics into other areas, as it has done with its Exploration and War series. "Again they are taking big, old, dry subjects and making them fresh, exciting and real."

Of course, ML is issuing its Chronicles at a time when accessible history, a la the Penguin Lives series and books such as Dava Sobel's Longitude, have struck a chord with readers. Supervising editor Scott Moyers told PW that the Modern Library is trying to build a library of world history with titles that feature "great marriages of author and subject." The Chronicles are being published in a parallel program in the U.K. in what Moyers called a "happy marriage" with Weidenfeld and Nicolson.

Ebershoff pointed out that the involvement of Moyers, who is a Random House editor, in the Chronicles program exemplifies how ML's expansion has also allowed for some interesting cooperation within the entire publishing company. "The entire Random House Publishing Group is behind it," said Ebershoff. "That's different than it was a few years ago." The synergy of editorial talent and contacts helped to secure those big-name authors for the two new series. In addition to working closely with other divisions at Random House, Modern Library needed to beef up its own staff and now has a complete team including, for the first time in years, a publicist.

Since classics authors are usually not available for touring, publicity had not been a huge priority at ML. Publicist Adrienne Short told PW that some of the Chronicles authors and the writers who penned the new introductions for the Classics will be touring this fall. And Modern Library is exploring the possibility of holding a series of round tables with these authors at the famed Algonquin Hotel in New York City, the site of the Chronicles launch party next month. Short is working on other promotional events around the country.

All of the activity at the Modern Library is the culmination of what Ebershoff set out to do when he was named its director two years ago. "It was pretty clear that I was expected to bring new energy to the imprint," he told PW. Not surprisingly, part of that new energy is being directed into e-books. Along with publishing the Classics in paperback next month, the Modern Library will release 100 titles as e-books (News, Aug. 8) "To me, it is a very natural extension of our publishing program," said Ebershoff. "Since 1917, the Modern Library has been making classic literature accessible."


Houghton Preserves N.Y.'s Lost Treasures

The observation lounge
in the Chrysler Building
now houses transmission
equipment.
More than 30 years ago--long before the term urban conservationism was in vogue--a young architect named Nathan Silver carefully chronicled the city's architectural casualties in a book titled Lost New York. Now, after a few years out of print, Houghton Mifflin, which published the original in 1967, recently released an updated, paperback edition of the classic, illustrated work.
"Everyone I knew had the hardcover," said Susan Canavan, editor of the revised edition. After three decades, Houghton thought it was about time for Silver to go back and update his work. Besides, a whole generation of New Yorkers had been born in the meantime, one reason the house sees a potentially large audience. "So many people know this book and so many people are going to come to this book who never saw it before," said Canavan. Shortly after the August 8 pub date, she said Houghton was happy with bookstore orders, as well as some nice coverage in the New York Times and the New Yorker.

So why not reissue in hardcover? According to Canavan, the house was going for a younger market that might be attracted to a $25 paperback price point. Yet she hinted that a hardcover release had not been ruled out.

That is something the author would definitely like to see. Silver, a "born and bred New Yorker" who now teaches architecture in London, told PW that he is pressuring Houghton to issue a deluxe hardcover edition of Lost New York by Christmas. "If we pull off the hardcover thing, we'll have done it backward," he told PW.
Once upon a time a little family
publishing company
had a home on Pearl Street.
Since the book bounced around among a few publishers in its lifetime, exact records are hard to trace, but by the author's recollection the original Lost New York sold roughly 100,000 copies in both hardcover and paper. While he is not boasting to be able to sell that many copies right away, Silver did point out that there is a lot more interest in conservation than there was in 1967. "That was unheard of then," he said.
Today the battle between conservationists and developers is in the news all the time; for example, a recent skirmish between New York University Law School and preservation groups over a house once occupied by Edgar Allan P . "It is inappropriate for me to fight that battle when I am no longer a resident," Silver explained. "But the most important thing about Lost New York is remembering. And there are reasons to remember buildings both architecturally and personally." Incidentally, Silver conducted his research for this edition on frequent visits to New York and on the Internet. Hey, just because he knows an old treasure when he see one d sn't mean he is against progress.
--Bridget Kinsella

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