#horace liveright

[davidhudson]

Tod Browning, July 12, 1880 – October 6, 1962.

With Bela Lugosi, Horace Liveright, and Dudley Murphy on the set of Dracula (1931).

[uwmspeccoll]

Classics Spotlight

This 1928 edition of The Eleven Comedies by Aristophanes was published by American publisher Horace Liveright in a limited edition of 2050. While the translator is unknown, the work was translated from its original Greek to English. Originally published by the Athenian Society, a renowned literary society in London, in 1912, this edition was exclusively available to its subscribers.

It consists of two volumes with chromolithographic plates as well as black and white illustrations created by Belgian artist Jean de Bosschere. His artwork brings the characters and scenes of the comedies to life, enhancing the reader's engagement with the text.

Aristophanes, a playwright from late 5th-century Athens, was known as the "Father of Comedy" for his significant contributions to the genre. His plays, characterized by their satirical and often political nature, set the standard for comedic writing and continue to inspire modern comedians and playwrights.

-- Melissa, Special Collections Classics Intern

View other Classics posts.

[garadinervi]

From: The Shorter Novels of Herman Melville, ['Billy Budd, Foretopman'], Introduction by Raymond Weaver, Horace Liveright, New York, NY, 1928 [From the Collection of William Palmer Johnston. The Grolier Club, New York, NY]

Exhibitions: Melville's Billy Budd at 100, The Grolier Club, September 12 – November 9, 2024; Oberlin College & Conservatory Libraries, Oberlin, OH, November 17 – December 20, 2024

[cinemamoremio]

Tod Browning, Bela Lugosi, Horace Liveright e Dudley Murphy sul set - “Dracula”, 1931

[lornebair]

New Arrivals: Original photographic portrait of Kathleen Millay (ca.1931) by Man Ray, bottom edge with contemporary typescript note "Kathleen Millay, Author of THE BEGGAR AT THE GATE, Published by Horace Liveright Inc. N.Y. Photograph by Man Ray, Paris." 

Author portrait of Edna St. Vincent Millay's sister. Later (8/14/69) ownership inscription on verso by the proprietor of the Folklore Center Israel (Izzy) Young in which he notes he was given this photograph by blues collector and Greenwich Village eccentric Larry (Lawrence) Gellert.

[offonatangent]

Press Release Versus Reality

So Norton is relaunching Liveright & Company which is all very good since it's a storied name in publishing, but I have to admit when I read the part in the press release that described the company's history, I laughed my ass off. A quick compare and contrast reveals why.

History of Liveright (press release version):

First with business partner Albert Boni and later on his own, Horace Liveright created a publishing firm that captured the flowering of literature in the 1920s and early 1930s. Eager to challenge the staid and stifling traditions of nineteenth-century publishing that remained dominant in American letters even after World War I, the progressive Liveright took note of the American cultural revolution transforming the arts in the 1920s, particularly in music and painting. Liveright was eager to effect the same transformation in literature. He signed up the then-experimental works of writers and poets like Gertrude Stein, E.E. Cummings, Djuna Barnes, and William Faulkner. Unintimidated by censors and conventional tastemakers, Liveright also gravitated to writers like Theodore Dreiser, Anita Loos, and Isadora Duncan, all who challenged the moral conventions of the day.

Liveright also cast his net overseas, issuing commercial translations of classic authors and publishing the works of new English writers who were making their mark. European authors on his list included Sigmund Freud, Bertrand Russell, and T.S. Eliot, among others. Liveright eschewed the ephemeral themes that captured the fancies of more mainstream publishers and willingly forsook the bestseller list in the short term for works that, he was certain, would stand the test of time. As a result, a disproportionately high number of writers and celebrities whom Liveright and Boni signed up have lasted now 94 years, and many have become the foundational forces of both twentieth and twenty-first century literature.

Tragically, Horace Liveright died in 1933. The quality of the firm's copyrights was such that the firm survived until 1974, when it was acquired by W. W. Norton & Company.

History of Liveright (Wikipedia version)

In 1917 Liveright founded the Modern Library and Boni & Liveright publishers in New York with business partner Albert Boni. Modern Library was formed as a reprinting line, publishing inexpensive books from European modernists, while Boni & Liveright published the work of contemporary Americans. Liveright published work by T. S. Eliot (The Waste Land), Charles Fort (The Book of the Damned), Theodore Dreiser (An American Tragedy), and Bertrand Russell (Marriage and Morals). The company also published the first books by Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Hart Crane, Dorothy Parker, and S. J. Perelman.

Liveright believed that books could be marketed similarly to other media and was among the first to aggressively sell novels. Liveright was also a vocal campaigner against the strict literary censorship of the period.

Despite their successes, Liveright and Boni's relationship broke down and the pair chose to part ways. It is reported that they flipped a coin to decide who would buy the other out, and Liveright gained control. In 1923, Liveright's alcoholism started to take its toll. Throwing frequent, lavish parties, he would over-indulge many nights per week....

...Liveright started his stage production career in 1924. His initial choices of plays were not successful, and he had to use an increasing amount of money from his publishing company. His faltering financial status meant that he had to sell the Modern Library to then-vice-president Bennett Cerf in 1925.Liveright started to put money from the publishing company into Broadway productions but soon found that the erratic success of the Boni & Liveright publishers was not a secure income; the Modern Library had been the backbone of his finances. In 1928 he lost control of Boni & Liveright and was pushed out entirely by 1930.

Liveright died of pneumonia on September 24, 1933, aged forty-nine. Years of alcoholism and his business failures likely contributed to his death. Six people were said to attend his funeral.

Not to mention, Liveright was the subject of a movie, "The Scoundrel", with Noel Coward playing him. (And now I totally want to read Tom Dardis's book, which would probably be a good companion piece of sorts to his protegee Bennett Cerf's autobiography AT RANDOM, which is essential reading for anyone with any connection to books whatsoever.)

But I get it, Norton can't exactly go around saying "we're relaunching an old imprint founded by some drunken dissolute dude who died so broke with so many bridges burned his funeral only attracted half a dozen people. Yay!" and make it work...