The Art of the Publisher

by Roberto Calasso, Richard Dixon (Translator)

Overview

An interior look at Roberto Calasso's work as a publisher and his reflections on the art of book publishing

In this illuminating volume, Roberto Calasso reflects on more than half a century of distinguished literary publishing at Adelphi Edizioni in Milan. "Part merchant, part circus impresario, the publisher has always been considered with a certain mistrust, like a clever huckster," Calasso writes, and yet "publisher" may also be one of the most prestigious titles around.

Recalling the beginnings of Adelphi in the 1960s, Calasso touches on the house's defining qualities and its strategy of publishing a wide range of authors of high literary quality. Stepping back, he then considers the publishing industry as a whole, bringing his signature erudition and grasp of literary history to bear on various aspects of the enterprise. From the vital importance of jackets, design, and cover flaps to the consequences of universal digitization, Calasso offers a penetrating study of the industry and an essential survey of twentieth-century literature.

A daring defense of an industry in flux and an ode to publishers who devote themselves to "good books," The Art of the Publisher makes an insider’s case for publishing as a singular artistic form. An essential collection for writers, readers, and editors, it is a tribute to the age-old art of making books.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780374536473
Publisher:	Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication date:	11/22/2016
Pages:	160
Product dimensions:	4.70(w) x 7.00(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Roberto Calasso was the publisher of Adelphi Edizioni in Milan and the author of a decades-spanning, multi-volume work which up to now comprises The Ruin of Kasch, The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony, Ka, K., Tiepolo Pink, La Folie Baudelaire, Ardor, The Unnamable Present, and The Celestial Hunter, many of which were published by FSG. FSG will published two more books in Calasso's magnum opus, The Book of All Books (November 2021) and his The Tablet of the Destinies in 2022. Roberto Calasso died on July 28, 2021.

Richard Dixon lives and works in Italy. His translations from the Italian include Ardor by Roberto Calasso andThe Prague Cemetery and Numero Zero by Umberto Eco. He is one of the translators of FSG’s edition of Giacomo Leopardi’s Zibaldone.

Editorial Reviews

[Calasso is] a literary institution.” —The Paris Review on Roberto Calasso

“Calasso is not only immensely learned; he is one of the most original thinkers and writers we have today.” —Charles Simic on Roberto Calasso

“[Calasso] brings learning and passion to this chronicle of the business of getting books into the hands of readers . . . A treat for book lovers.” —Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

★ 06/29/2015
Calasso (Ardor), novelist and publisher of Adelphi Edizioni, the highly regarded Italian press, has meticulously crafted 11 brief, elegant essays on book publishing. Calasso inquires about future book use in a long reflection based on his Adelphi experience. In an age when everyone wants to be a publisher—and can be, after a fashion—Calasso asks, why publish books for a living? Deep down, he contends, few involved in publishing today believe profit to be the prime motivation, given the industry’s self-evident fragility. Calasso examines why publishers from the 16th century (Aldus Manutius, a Venetian printer credited with introducing italic type and the modern use of the comma)) to the 20th (Kurt Wolff, Kafka’s publisher) have entered the industry. He worries about what drives content today. In his view, whether a book is cool or uncool and how the author look on television are not the right questions. Calasso asks whether the publisher is to become a “residual organ” in the book business, and emphatically answers no throughout his remarks, which are devoid of nostalgia or wishful thinking. While observing the expanding range of what is considered publishable, Calasso reveals his own publishing ideal, “faire plaisir”—to give birth to literary pleasure and to light a beacon for discerning, if not wide, audiences. Several of these short takes and memoirs are must-reads for anyone interested in serious books, and the collection benefits from Richard Dixon’s strikingly graceful translation. Agent: Andrew Wylie, Wylie Agency. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

09/01/2015
Many works written about publishing focus on the business aspects or the history of books and the printing press. Calasso (The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony) looks at the industry in a novel way: as an art form. In this collection of essays and speeches, Calasso draws on his extensive experience as publisher at Adelphi Edizioni in Milan to demonstrate how the role provides an artistic vision and an editorial philosophy that drives the choice of titles, the appearance of each book, and the way books are sold and publicized. The author also presents a convincing argument about the pitfalls of electronic books and universal digitization, which he cautions will change how we learn and acquire knowledge. To Calasso, the publisher—through his careful selection of titles and fostering of the house's brand—helps define the culture of a society. VERDICT Calasso's thoughts should be savored over a good cup of espresso and shared with bibliophiles, writers, librarians, scholars, and anyone concerned with our cultural heritage.—Donna Marie Smith, Palm Beach Cty. Lib. Syst., FL

Library Journal

2015-08-17
The eminent Italian litteratus and publisher brings learning and passion to this chronicle of the business of getting books into the hands of readers. American bibliophiles covet books published by Knopf and the Modern Library. Italians look, foremost among other houses, to Adelphi, where Calasso (Ardor, 2014, etc.) has been working since its founding in 1962. With a look and feel that can't be mistaken for books published by other houses, the books of Adelphi fulfill what the author considers chief among the criteria of artful publishing: "the capacity to give form to a plurality of books as though they were the chapters of a single book." Describing publishing as, alternately, an example of what the French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss called bricolage and, more modernly, as "a hybrid multimedia literary genre," Calasso stakes a claim for both up-to-dateness and reverence for tradition—for, he argues, the best publisher ever was one of the first, the great Venetian printer and entrepreneur Aldus Manutius. But not too much up-to-dateness—for all that multimedia talk, the author spends a good part of this slender book arguing directly and indirectly with the American technology writer Kevin Kelly, whose embrace of e-books and an end of mass-produced physical books sends Calasso up the wall. Much of this collection hinges on some knowledge of Italian cultural affairs, or at least enough familiarity with history to appreciate a sentiment such as, "the writings of the Red Brigades are always hard going at the start." But much, too, is pure celebration of books and the devotion to letters that good publishers evidence in abundance and excess, a good publisher being, as Calasso writes, "one who publishes one tenth of the books that he would like to, and perhaps ought to, publish." A treat for book lovers, especially those who lust for the productions of Feltrinelli, Bompiani, and, of course, Adelphi.

Kirkus Reviews