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BOOK BUSINESS

Name: BOOK BUSINESS
Author: Jason Epstein
ISBN: 0-393-04984-1

PUBLISHING: PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE

by Jason Epstein ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 2001

Humane, razor sharp, and charmingly told: a must for anyone interested in the story of how books are made.

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Everything you wanted to know about the publishing industry in seven easy lessons.

Epstein, former editorial director of Random House and the first recipient of the National Book Award for Distinguished Service to American Letters, takes a stroll down memory lane as he dissects the rather pathetic state of the publishing industry at the dawn of the Internet age. He has certainly earned the right. There is something Forrest Gump–like about Epstein’s ability to turn up at so many important moments in the history of the New York publishing industry—Gump-like, that is, if one can imagine Forrest founding The New York Review of Books, drinking martinis with Edmund Wilson, and reading advance copies of Nabokov’s Lolita. The thesis tucked in amidst the reminiscences is simple: The publishing and retail bookselling industry is in a state of “terminal decrepitude,” laid low by structural problems that the Amazon.coms of the world can do nothing to overcome. Epstein locates the beginning of the industry’s decline in the rise of the suburbs after WWII; the new suburban bookstores had to move books like any other commodity and therefore demanded fast-moving bestsellers instead of the backlist products that had formerly ensured the publishers’ profitability. Little more than anecdotal support is given for this analysis, but Epstein is a man who knows his industry, so the absence of hard evidence is mostly forgivable. The only time he seems less than trustworthy is when he turns to the future; he’s trapped in many of the same cyber-platitudes that bedevil the public at large. But this book, based on Epstein’s Norton Lectures delivered in 1999 at the New York Public Library, is really about memories, not predictions.

Humane, razor sharp, and charmingly told: a must for anyone interested in the story of how books are made.

Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2001

ISBN: 0-393-04984-1

Page Count: 144

Publisher: Norton

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2000

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.