Alfred A. Knopf
Blanche Wolf Knopf and Alfred A. Knopf Sr. | |
Country of origin | United States |
---|---|
Headquarters location | New York City, U.S. |
Official website | knopfdoubleday |
Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. (/knɒpf/) is an American publishing house that was founded by Blanche Knopf and Alfred A. Knopf Sr. in 1915.[1] Blanche and Alfred traveled abroad regularly and were known for publishing European, Asian, and Latin American writers in addition to leading American literary trends. It was acquired by Random House in 1960, and is now part of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group division of Penguin Random House which is owned by the German conglomerate Bertelsmann.[2][3]
The Knopf publishing house is associated with the borzoi logo in its colophon, which was designed by co-founder Blanche Knopf in 1925.[4]
History
Founding
Knopf was founded in 1915 by Alfred A. Knopf Sr. along with Blanche Knopf, on a $5,000 advance from his father, Samuel Knopf.[4] [5] The first office was located in New York's Candler Building.[6] The publishing house was officially incorporated in 1918, with Alfred Knopf as president, Blanche Knopf as vice president, and Samuel Knopf as treasurer.[7]
From the start, Knopf focused on European translations and high-brow works of literature. Among their initial publications were French author Émile Augier's Four Plays, Ukrainian writer Nikolai Gogol's Taras Bulba, Polish novelist Stanisław Przybyszewski's novel Homo Sapiens, and French writer Guy de Maupassant's Yvette, a Novelette, and Ten Other Stories.[6] During World War I these books were cheap to obtain and helped establish Knopf as an American firm publishing European works.[8] Their first bestseller was a new edition of Green Mansions, a novel by W. H. Hudson which went through nine printings by 1919 and sold over 20,000 copies.[6] Their first original American novel, The Three Black Pennys by Joseph Hergesheimer, was published in 1917.[6]
1920s
With the start of the 1920s Knopf began using innovative advertising techniques to draw attention to their books and authors. Beginning in 1920, Knopf produced a chapbook for the purpose of promoting new books. The Borzoi was published periodically over the years, the first being a hardback called The Borzoi and sometimes quarterly as The Borzoi Quarterly.[9] For Floyd Dell's coming-of-age novel, Moon-Calf, they paid men to walk the streets of the financial and theatre districts dressed in artist costumes with sandwich boards. The placards had a copy of the book for browsing and directed interested buyers to local book shops.[10]
The unique look of their books along with their expertise in advertising their authors drew Willa Cather to leave her previous publisher Houghton Mifflin to join Alfred A. Knopf.[11] As she was still under contract for her novels, the Knopfs suggested publishing a collection of her short stories, Youth and the Bright Medusa, in 1920.[11] Cather was pleased with the results and the advertisement of the book in The New Republic and would go on to publish sixteen books with Knopf, including their first Pulitzer Prize winner, One of Ours.[11]
Before they had married, Alfred had promised Blanche that they would be equal partners in the publishing company, but it was clear by the company's fifth anniversary that this was not to be the case. Knopf published a celebratory fifth-anniversary book in which Alfred was the focus of anecdotes by authors and Blanche's name was only mentioned once to note that "Mrs. Knopf" had found a manuscript. This despite ample evidence from authors and others that Blanche was in fact the soul of the company. This was covered extensively in The Lady with the Borzoi by Laura Claridge.[1]
In 1923, Knopf also started publishing periodicals, beginning with The American Mercury, founded by H. L. Mencken and George Jean Nathan, which it published through 1934.[12]
Also in 1923, Knopf published Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet. Knopf had published Gibran's earlier works which had disappointing sales. In its first year, The Prophet only sold 1,159 copies. It would double sales the next year and keep doubling becoming one of the firm's most successful books. In 1965 the book sold 240,000 copies.[13] Approaching its 100 year anniversary in 2023, The Prophet has been translated into over 100 languages and has never gone out of print for Knopf.
In the 1920s, Knopf sometimes withdrew or censored their books when threatened by John Sumner, such as Floyd Dell's Janet March or George Egerton's 1899 translation of Hunger.[14][15][16]
1930s
Samuel Knopf died in 1932. William A. Koshland joined the company in 1934, and worked with the firm for more than fifty years, rising to take the positions of president and chairman of the board. Blanche became president in 1957 when Alfred became chairman of the board, and worked steadily for the firm until her death in 1966. Alfred Knopf retired in 1972, becoming chairman emeritus of the firm until his death in 1984. Alfred Knopf also had a summer home in Purchase, New York.
1940s
Following the Good Neighbor policy, Blanche Knopf visited South America in 1942, so the firm could start producing texts from there. She was one of the first publishers to visit Europe after World War II. Her trips, and those of other editors, brought in new writers from Europe, South America, and Asia. Alfred traveled to Brazil in 1961, which spurred a corresponding interest on his part in South America. Penn Publishing Company was acquired in 1943. The Knopfs' son, Alfred "Pat" Jr., was hired on as secretary and trade books manager after the war.
1950s
In 1957, editor Judith Jones joined Knopf.[17] Jones, who had discovered Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl while working at Doubleday, acquired Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking for Knopf.[18] Jones would remain with Knopf, retiring in 2011 as a senior editor and vice-president after a career that included working with John Updike and Anne Tyler.[18]
Pat Knopf left his parents' publishing company in 1959 to launch his own, Atheneum Publishers, with two other partners.[19] The story made the front page of The New York Times.[19][20]
In a 1957 advertisement in
Acquisition by Random House
In 1960,
Since its founding, Knopf has paid close attention to design and
Knopf published textbooks until 1988, when Random House's schools and colleges division was sold to
In 1991, Knopf revived the "Everyman's Library" series, originally published in England in the early 20th century. This series consists of classics of world literature in affordable hardcover editions. The series has grown over the years to include lines of Children's Classics and Pocket Poets.
Random House was acquired by
Many of Knopf's hardcover books are published later as Vintage paperbacks. Vintage Books is a sister imprint of Random House.[26]
In October 2012, Bertelsmann entered into talks with rival conglomerate
In 2015, Knopf celebrated its 100th anniversary by publishing a commemorative book, Alfred A. Knopf, 1915–2015: A Century of Publishing.[4]
Notable people
Notable editors and publishers
While there have been many notable editors at Knopf there have only been four editors-in-chief:
Notable authors
Alfred A. Knopf has published books by many notable authors, including
Awards
Year | Award | Category | Title | Author |
---|---|---|---|---|
2013 | Pulitzer Prize[32] | Poetry | Stag's Leap | Sharon Olds |
2011 | Pulitzer Prize | Fiction | A Visit from the Goon Squad | Jennifer Egan |
2010 | Pulitzer Prize | Biography or Autobiography | The First Tycoon | T.J. Stiles
|
2007 | Pulitzer Prize | Fiction | The Road |
Cormac McCarthy |
2005 | MHA Best Book Award[33] | History | Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling | Richard Bushman |
2005 | Pulitzer Prize | Biography or Autobiography | de Kooning: An American Master | Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan |
2004 | Pulitzer Prize | Poetry | Walking to Martha's Vineyard | Franz Wright |
2003 | Newbery Honor[34] | Fiction | Hoot | Carl Hiaasen |
2003 | Pulitzer Prize | Biography or Autobiography | Master of the Senate |
Robert A. Caro
|
2002 | Pulitzer Prize | Fiction | Empire Falls | Richard Russo |
2001 | Pulitzer Prize | History | Founding Brothers | Joseph J. Ellis
|
1999 | Pulitzer Prize | Poetry | Blizzard of One | Mark Strand |
1998 | Pulitzer Prize | Biography or Autobiography | Personal History | Katharine Graham |
1997 | Pulitzer Prize | History | Original Meanings | Jack N. Rakove |
1996 | Pulitzer Prize | Fiction | Independence Day | Richard Ford |
1996 | Pulitzer Prize | Biography or Autobiography | God: A Biography | Jack Miles |
1996 | Pulitzer Prize | History | William Cooper's Town | Alan Taylor |
1995 | Pulitzer Prize | Poetry | The Simple Truth | Philip Levine |
1995 | Pulitzer Prize | General Nonfiction | The Beak of the Finch | Jonathan Weiner |
1993 | Pulitzer Prize | History | The Radicalism of the American Revolution | Gordon S. Wood |
1992 | Pulitzer Prize | Fiction | A Thousand Acres | Jane Smiley |
1991 | Pulitzer Prize | History | A Midwife's Tale | Laurel Thatcher Ulrich |
1991 | Pulitzer Prize | Fiction | Rabbit at Rest | John Updike |
1991 | Pulitzer Prize | Poetry | Near Changes | Mona Van Duyn |
1989 | Pulitzer Prize | Biography or Autobiography | Oscar Wilde | Richard Ellmann |
1989 | Pulitzer Prize | Fiction | Breathing Lessons | Anne Tyler |
1988 | Pulitzer Prize | History | The Launching of Modern American Science, 1846-1876 | Robert V. Bruce |
1988 | Pulitzer Prize | History | Partial Accounts | William Meredith |
1988 | Pulitzer Prize | Fiction | Beloved | Toni Morrison |
1987 | Pulitzer Prize | History | Voyagers to the West |
Bernard Bailyn |
1987 | Pulitzer Prize | Fiction | A Summons to Memphis | Peter Taylor
|
1986 | Pulitzer Prize | Biography or Autobiography | Louise Bogan | Elizabeth Frank |
1986 | Pulitzer Prize | General Nonfiction | Common Ground | J. Anthony Lukas |
1982 | Pulitzer Prize | Fiction | Rabbit Is Rich | John Updike |
1981 | Pulitzer Prize | Biography or Autobiography | Peter the Great | Robert K. Massie |
1981 | Pulitzer Prize | General Nonfiction | Fin-de-Siècle Vienna |
Carl E. Schorske |
1980 | Pulitzer Prize | History | Been In the Storm So Long | Leon F. Litwack
|
1979 | Pulitzer Prize | Fiction | The Stories of John Cheever | John Cheever |
1975 | Pulitzer Prize | Biography or Autobiography | The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York |
Robert A. Caro
|
1973 | Pulitzer Prize | History | People of Paradox | Michael Kammen |
1970 | Pulitzer Prize | Biography or Autobiography | Huey Long | T. Harry Williams |
1967 | Pulitzer Prize | History | Exploration and Empire |
William H. Goetzmann |
1965 | Pulitzer Prize | Fiction | The Keepers of the House | Shirley Ann Grau |
1964 | Pulitzer Prize | General Nonfiction | Anti-Intellectualism in American Life |
Richard Hofstadter |
1962 | Pulitzer Prize | History | The Triumphant Empire: Thunder-Clouds Gather in the West | Lawrence H. Gipson |
1961 | Pulitzer Prize | Biography or Autobiography | Charles Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War | David Herbert |
1960 | Pulitzer Prize | Poetry | Heart's Needle | W. D. Snodgrass |
1956 | Pulitzer Prize | History | The Age of Reform | Richard Hofstadter |
1955 | Pulitzer Prize | History | Collected Poems: Wallace Stevens | Wallace Stevens |
1951 | Pulitzer Prize | Fiction | The Town | Conrad Richter |
1950 | Pulitzer Prize | Biography or Autobiography | John Quincy Adams and the Foundations of American Foreign Policy | Samuel Flagg Bemis |
1946 | Pulitzer Prize | Biography or Autobiography | Son of the Wilderness | Linnie Marsh Wolfe |
1945 | Pulitzer Prize | Novel | A Bell for Adano | John Hersey |
1945 | Pulitzer Prize | Biography or Autobiography | George Bancroft: Brahmin Rebel | Russel Blaine Nye
|
1944 | Pulitzer Prize | Biography or Autobiography | The American Leonardo: A Life of Samuel F. B. Morse | Carleton Mabee |
1934 | Pulitzer Prize | Poetry | Collected Verse | Robert Hillyer |
1927 | Pulitzer Prize | Poetry | Fiddler's Farewell | Leonora Speyer |
1923 | Pulitzer Prize | Novel | One of Ours | Willa Cather |
2009 | National Book Award[35] | Nonfiction | The First Tycoon | T.J. Stiles
|
2005 | National Book Award | Nonfiction | The Year of Magical Thinking | Joan Didion |
2002 | National Book Award | Nonfiction | Master of the Senate |
Robert A. Caro
|
1997 | National Book Award | Nonfiction | American Sphinx The Character of Thomas Jefferson | Joseph J. Ellis
|
1991 | National Book Award | Nonfiction | How We Die | Sherwin B. Nuland |
1992 | National Book Award | Fiction | All the Pretty Horses | Cormac McCarthy |
1991 | National Book Award | Poetry | What Work Is | Philip Levine |
1989 | National Book Award | Fiction | Spartina | John Casey |
1985 | National Book Award | Nonfiction | Common Ground | J. Anthony Lukas |
1983 | National Book Award | History | Voices of Protest | Alan Brinkley |
1982 | National Book Award | Fiction | Rabbit is Rich |
John Updike |
1981 | National Book Award | First Novel | Sister Wolf | Ann Arensberg |
1981 | National Book Award | Fiction Paperback | The Stories of John Cheever | John Cheever |
1981 | National Book Award | General Nonfiction | China Men | Maxine Hong Kingston |
1981 | National Book Award | History Paperback | Been in the Storm So Long | Leon F. Litwack
|
1980 | National Book Award | Autobiography (Hardcover) | By Myself | Lauren Bacall |
1980 | National Book Award | Current Interest (Hardcover) | Julia Child and More Company | Julia Child |
1980 | National Book Award | History (Paperback) | A Distant Mirror | Barbara W. Tuchman |
1980 | National Book Award | First Novel | Birdy | William Wharton |
1977 | National Book Award | Contemporary Thought | The Uses of Enchantment | Bruno Bettelheim |
1976 | National Book Award | Fiction | J R | William Gaddis |
1975 | National Book Award | Contemporary Affairs | All God's Dangers | Theodore Rosengarten |
1974 | National Book Award | Biography | Macaulay | John Clive |
1972 | National Book Award | Poetry | The Collected Works of Frank O'Hara | Frank O'Hara |
1970 | National Book Award | History and Biography | Huey Long | T. Harry Williams |
1967 | National Book Award | History and Biography | The Enlightenment, Vol. 1 | Peter Gay |
1964 | National Book Award | Fiction | The Centaur | John Updike |
1962 | National Book Award | Fiction | The Moviegoer | Walker Percy |
1961 | National Book Award | Fiction | The Waters of Kronos | Conrad Richter |
1955 | National Book Award | Poetry | The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens | Wallace Stevens |
1951 | National Book Award | Poetry | The Auroras of Autumn | Wallace Stevens |
2017 | Nobel Prize | Literature | Nobel Prize in Literature | Kazuo Ishiguro |
2013 | Nobel Prize | Literature | Nobel Prize in Literature | Alice Munro |
2007 | Nobel Prize | Literature | Nobel Prize in Literature | Doris Lessing |
2006 | Nobel Prize | Literature | Nobel Prize in Literature | Orhan Pamuk |
2002 | Nobel Prize | Literature | Nobel Prize in Literature | Imre Kertész |
2001 | Nobel Prize | Literature | Nobel Prize in Literature | V.S. Naipaul
|
1999 | Nobel Prize | Literature | Nobel Prize in Literature | Günter Grass |
1993 | Nobel Prize | Literature | Nobel Prize in Literature | Toni Morrison |
1991 | Nobel Prize | Literature | Nobel Prize in Literature | Nadine Gordimer |
1982 | Nobel Prize | Literature | Nobel Prize in Literature | Gabriel García Márquez |
1980 | Nobel Prize | Literature | Nobel Prize in Literature | Czeslaw Milosz
|
1972 | Nobel Prize | Literature | Nobel Prize in Literature | Heinrich Boll
|
1968 | Nobel Prize | Literature | Nobel Prize in Literature | Yasunari Kawabata |
1965 | Nobel Prize | Literature | Nobel Prize in Literature | Mikhail Sholokhov |
1964 | Nobel Prize | Literature | Nobel Prize in Literature | Jean-Paul Sartre (declined) |
1961 | Nobel Prize | Literature | Nobel Prize in Literature | Ivo Andric
|
1957 | Nobel Prize | Literature | Nobel Prize in Literature | Albert Camus |
1955 | Nobel Prize | Literature | Nobel Prize in Literature | Halldor K. Laxness |
1947 | Nobel Prize | Literature | Nobel Prize in Literature | André Gide |
1944 | Nobel Prize | Literature | Nobel Prize in Literature | Johannes V. Jensen |
1939 | Nobel Prize | Literature | Nobel Prize in Literature | Frans E. Sillanpaa |
1929 | Nobel Prize | Literature | Nobel Prize in Literature | Thomas Mann |
1928 | Nobel Prize | Literature | Nobel Prize in Literature | Sigrid Undset |
1924 | Nobel Prize | Literature | Nobel Prize in Literature | Wladyslaw S. Reymont |
1920 | Nobel Prize | Literature | Nobel Prize in Literature | Knut Hamsun |
1916 | Nobel Prize | Literature | Nobel Prize in Literature | Verner von Heidenstam |
Logo
The logo for Knopf is a Russian wolfhound or Borzoi.[1] Blanche Knopf suggested the Borzoi for the logo to imply motion and the logo was used on both the spine and the title page of their books.[1]
References
- ^ a b c d Claridge (2016).
- ^ "Penguin Random House". bertelsmann.com. Bertelsmann SE & Co. Retrieved May 27, 2020.
- ^ "Alfred A. Knopf Inc.: Organizational History". Harry Ransom Center. The University of Texas at Austin. Retrieved July 4, 2009.
- ^ a b c d e Swanson, Clare (May 15, 2015). "A Century of Alfred A. Knopf". Publishers Weekly. Archived from the original on September 25, 2015. Retrieved September 24, 2015.
- ^ Clements, Amy Root. 2014. The Art of Prestige : The Formative Years at Knopf 1915-1929. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press.
- ^ a b c d Claridge (2016), pp. 29–47.
- ^ Claridge (2016), pp. 54–57.
- ^ Claridge (2016), p. 5.
- ^ "About the Borzoi Reader Online". Retrieved April 6, 2016.
- ^ Claridge (2016), pp. 65–78.
- ^ a b c Claridge (2016), pp. 61–63.
- ^ "Alfred A. Knopf — First Edition Identification". Biblio.com. Retrieved June 1, 2017.
- ^ Claridge (2016), pp. 81–83.
- ISBN 978-0-7425-5132-9.
- ISBN 978-0-299-17583-2.
- ^ Cahill, Edgar H. (August 17, 1921). "Purity in the Sixth Printing". The Nation. 113: 181–182.
- ^ "A Century of Alfred A. Knopf". September 25, 2015. Archived from the original on September 25, 2015. Retrieved February 25, 2024.
- ^ a b Claridge (2016), pp. 297–298.
- ^ a b Claridge (2016), pp. 302–303.
- ^ Conley, Robert (March 15, 1959). "3 Book Executives Forming Own Firm". The New York Times. Retrieved May 12, 2018.
- ^ Knopf, Alfred A. "The Borzoi Credo". Borzoi Reader. Retrieved September 24, 2015.
- ISBN 0679456597.
- ^ "Knopf: Then and Now". AIGA/NY. October 21, 2009. Archived from the original on June 16, 2010. Retrieved April 6, 2010.
- ^ McDowell, Edwin (September 29, 1988). "McGraw-Hill Is Buying 2 Random House Units". The New York Times.
- ^ Flamm, Matthew (December 3, 2008). "Shakeups hit Random House, other publishers". Crain's New York Business. Retrieved April 6, 2010.
- ^ "Knopf". knopfdoubleday.com. Retrieved May 21, 2020.
- ^ Edgecliffe-Johnson, Andrew; Wiesmann, Gerrit (October 26, 2012). "Penguin and Random House in deal talks". Media. Financial Times. Archived from the original on December 11, 2022. Retrieved August 12, 2013.(registration required)
- ^ ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved April 4, 2016.
- ^ Harris, Elizabeth (July 14, 2021). "Knopf Names Jordan Pavlin Its Editor in Chief". The New York Times. Retrieved April 4, 2023.
- ^ Mendelsund, Peter (August 7, 2014). "What's the Purpose of Book Jackets in a Digital World?". Slate Magazine. Retrieved June 12, 2022.
- ^ Knopf, Alfred A.: Portrait of a Publisher, 1915-1965. 2 vols. New York: Typophiles, 1965.
- ^ "2013 Winners and Finalists". The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved October 28, 2015.
- ^ "MHA Awards" (PDF). Mormon History Association. Archived from the original on February 13, 2012. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ "2003 Newbery Medal and Honor Books". Association for Library Service to Children. 2003. Archived from the original on November 5, 2011. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
- ^ "National Book Awards - 2009". National Book Award. Retrieved October 28, 2015.
Sources cited
- Claridge, Laura (2016). The lady with the Borzoi : Blanche Knopf, literary tastemaker extraordinaire (First ed.). New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. OCLC 908176194.
External links
- Official website
- Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Records, 1873-1996 at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin
- The Borzoi 1920: being a sort of record of five years' publishing
- Media related to Alfred A. Knopf at Wikimedia Commons