For Beginners
Predecessor | Writers and Readers Cooperative, Writers and Readers Publishing, Inc. |
---|---|
Founded | 1974 |
Founder | Books |
Nonfiction topics | history, philosophy, politics |
Imprints | Harlem River Press Black Butterfly Children's Books |
Official website | forbeginnersbooks.com |
For Beginners LLC is a publishing company based in
The For Beginners series was launched in the mid-1970s, but became out of print and often unavailable after the 2001 death of co-founder and publisher Glenn Thompson.[2] In 2007, a consortium of investors revived the series, reprinted back issues, and promised to publish between six and nine new issues each year.[citation needed] The current publisher is Dawn Reshen-Doty.
History
The company began as Writers and Readers Publishing Cooperative, a
The For Beginners series has its origins in two Spanish-language books, Cuba para principiantes (1960) and Marx para principiantes (1972) by the Mexican political cartoonist and writer
In the early 1980s, questions of control arose after some members of the cooperative sold U.S. rights to part of the For Beginners series to Pantheon Books. The cooperative officially disbanded in 1984.[citation needed]
Following this rift, in 1987 Thompson took over as sole publisher and moved back to his hometown of New York City to establish a legal foothold and prevent any further unauthorized distribution of titles. Based in Harlem, the company was known as Writers and Readers Publishing, Inc. (In moving the company to Harlem, Thompson’s goal was to stimulate a new Harlem Renaissance by creating an international publishing house there. He started two new publishing companies: The Harlem River Press, publishing children’s poetry, and Black Butterfly Children's Books, books for the inner-city child.) The London-based company, formally established in 1992, was known as Writers and Readers Limited.[6] For years, Thompson spent his time traveling between England and New York to manage the two companies.
In 1992, Richard Appignanesi, who had been the first editor in London for the series and had also written several of the titles, co-created the new publisher
Thompson died of cancer in London on September 7, 2001; by the time of his death, the company had published more than forty For Beginners titles.
Several years after Thompson's death, investors decided to buy the rights to the titles, creating For Beginners, LLC.
In the summer of 2007 For Beginners LLC re-released twenty of the prior For Beginners titles and authorized the first new title, Dada and Surrealism For Beginners.[7]
In 2010, the company released FDR for Beginners by Paul Buhle and Sabrina Jones, with an afterword by Harvey Pekar.[8][9]
See also
References
- ^ "The 2016 Book Distributors Profiles - Publishing Trends". Retrieved December 25, 2017.
- ^ a b Berger, John, and Margaret Busby (September 12, 2001). "Glenn Thompson: A pioneering black publisher, he saw books as a window for opening the minds of the oppressed", The Guardian.
- ^ "Introducing Graphic Guides", introducingbooks.com, Icon Books. Retrieved January 29, 2011.
- ^ "About Us", For Beginners. Archived October 16, 2014, at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved January 29, 2011.
- ^ MacDonald, H. (2003), "Pantheon re-offers 'for beginners' series", Publishers Weekly, 250(51), 26.
- ^ "Writers and Readers Limited", DueDil.com. Retrieved January 12, 2015.
- ^ DeSio, John (February 9, 2009). "Nerd-Vana: New York Comic Con". The Village Voice. New York. Retrieved June 23, 2010.
- ^ "FDR and The New Deal For Beginners", Publishers Weekly (September 13, 2010). Retrieved November 5, 2022.
- ^ Pietaro, John (July 20, 2010). "FDR and the New Deal for Beginners", People's World.