 | |
| Parent company | Grove/Atlantic |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1949; 76 years ago (1949) |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Headquarters location | New York City,New York |
| Distribution | Publishers Group West |
| Publication types | Books |
| Imprints | Black Cat |
| Official website | groveatlantic |
Grove Press is an Americanpublishing imprint that was founded in 1949 by John Balcomb and Robert Phelps.[1] Imprints include: Black Cat, Evergreen, Venus Library, and Zebra.Barney Rosset purchased the company in 1951 and turned it into analternative book press in the United States. He partnered withRichard Seaver to bring French literature to the United States. The Atlantic Monthly Press, under the aegis of its publisher,Morgan Entrekin, merged with Grove Press in 1993. Grove later became an imprint of the publisherGrove/Atlantic, Inc.
Grove Press was founded in 1949 by John Balcomb and Robert Phelps inGreenwich Village,Manhattan, on Grove Street. They publishedSelected Writings of the Ingenious Mrs. Aphra Behn in 1950, edited by Phelps.[1] Phelps sold Grove Press to Barney Rosset in 1951 for three thousand dollars.[2][3]
Under Rosset's leadership, Grove introduced American readers to European avant-garde literature and theatre, including French authorsAlain Robbe-Grillet,Jean Genet, andEugène Ionesco.
In 1954, Grove publishedSamuel Beckett's playWaiting for Godot after it had been refused by more mainstream publishers. Since then Grove has been Beckett's U.S. publisher. Grove is also the U.S. publisher of the works ofHarold Pinter; in 2006, the company published a collection calledThe Essential Pinter, which includes Pinter's Nobel Lecture, entitled "Art, Truth and Politics". In 2006, Grove published an anniversary bilingual edition ofWaiting for Godot and a special four-volume edition of Beckett's works, with commissioned introductions byEdward Albee,J. M. Coetzee,Salman Rushdie, andColm Tóibín, to commemorate the centenary of his birth in April 1906). Grove was the first American house to publish the unabridged complete works of theMarquis de Sade, translated by Seaver andAustryn Wainhouse. Grove also had an interest in Japanese literature, publishing several anthologies as well as works byKenzaburō Ōe and others.[2]
Grove published most of theAmerican Beats of the 1950s (Jack Kerouac,William Burroughs, andAllen Ginsberg), in addition to such poets asFrank O'Hara of theNew York School and poets associated withBlack Mountain and theSan Francisco Renaissance, includingRobert Duncan. In 1963, Grove publishedMy Life and Loves: Five Volumes in One/Complete and Unexpurgated, with annotations, collectingFrank Harris' work in one volume for the first time.
From 1957 to 1973 Grove publishedEvergreen Review, a literary magazine whose contributors includedEdward Albee,Bertolt Brecht,William S. Burroughs,Albert Camus,Lawrence Ferlinghetti,Nat Hentoff,LeRoi Jones,John Lahr, andTimothy Leary.[2]
Grove has also from time to time published mainstream works. For example, in 1978 it published the script from theGeorge Lucas filmAmerican Graffiti under its Black Cat paperback imprint.
In 1956, Rosset hiredFred Jordan as Grove's business manager. Jordan spent most of the next 30 years at Grove. Later an editor with the press, Jordan oversaw the company's First Amendment lawsuits.[4]
The defining movements of the 1960s in America—the antiwar, civil rights, black power, counterculture, and student movements in the United States—along with revolutions across the globe, were debated, exposed, and discussed in Grove’s publications, as was the sexual revolution. Grove's books challenged prevailing attitudes about sex through dozens of erotic books, many by "anonymous" authors; introduced the layperson to new directions in psychology throughEric Berne'sGames People Play (1964); and gave voice to revolutionaries around the world, among themChe Guevara andMalcolm X. Grove published works byFrantz Fanon andRégis Debray, and numerous books opposing theVietnam War and thedraft, including information on G.I. rights.[5]
Rejecting conventional notions ofobscenity andmorality, Grove gained a reputation as a controversial publisher committed to fightingcensorship as it published some of the best-known banned books.
In 1959, Grove Press published an unexpurgated version ofD. H. Lawrence'sLady Chatterley's Lover. TheU.S. Post Office Department confiscated copies sent through the mail. Rosset sued the New York city postmaster and his lawyerCharles Rembar won in New York, and then on federal appeal.[6]
Grove's success in publishingLady Chatterley’s Lover paved the way for Rosset to publish another contested work that was ultimately cleared by the courts,Henry Miller's 1934 novel,Tropic of Cancer.[2] The book contained explicit sexual passages and therefore could not be published in the United States. In 1961, Grove Press issued a copy of the work and lawsuits were brought against dozens of individual booksellers in many states for selling it. The issue was ultimately settled by theU. S. Supreme Court's 1973 decision inMiller v. California. (The Miller of theMiller case was unrelated to Henry Miller.)
The William S. Burroughs novelNaked Lunch was banned in some parts of the world for approximately ten years. Its first American publisher was Grove Press. The book was banned byBoston courts in 1962 on the grounds of obscenity, but that decision was reversed in a landmark 1966 opinion by the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts. This was the last major literary censorship battle in the US. Upon publication, Grove Press added to the book supplementary material regarding the censorship battle as well as an article written by Burroughs on the topic ofdrug addiction. Grove would publish several editions of the novel over the next four decades, including a "Restored Text" version in 2002. Grove also published the first American paperback editions of other Burroughs works, includingThe Soft Machine,Nova Express andThe Ticket That Exploded. Grove would also publish the final collection of the author's writings, the posthumously publishedLast Words: The Final Journals of William S. Burroughs, and in 2008 published the American first edition ofAnd the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks, the first release of a novel that Burroughs andJack Kerouac had collaborated on in the mid-1940s.
Grove had to defend itsEvergreen Review on several occasions due to what was deemed objectionable content. Issues were occasionally seized by the authorities.
After winning several battles over the printed page, Grove built on these victories and successfully defended the screening ofVilgot Sjöman’s Swedish filmI Am Curious (Yellow).
Grove Press acquiredCinema 16 in 1966.[7] In 1970, they sponsored the Grove Press InternationalFilm Festival in New York City.[8] The film division was closed in 1985.[9]
In 1962, Grove had sales of $2 million, but after legal bills, lost $400,000. By 1964, however, they were profitable, and by 1967, Grove went public and built its own headquarters. In 1970, the staff of 150 began organizing a union. Rosset fired some of the organizers (and later re-hired them in arbitration). The organizers responded with a picket line and an occupation of the building. Rosset called the police, and the occupiers were arrested. His editor, Richard Seaver, talked to the pickets and convinced them to disperse. Grove distributed an anti-union information sheet, and the union vote failed, 86–34. After the vote, Grove fired half its workers.[10]
In 1985, Rosset sold Grove Press toAnn Getty and SirGeorge Weidenfeld, a British publisher.[2] Rosset was fired a year later.[2]
Obscene, a documentary feature about Rosset and Grove Press by Neil Ortenberg and Daniel O’Connor, was released September 26, 2008.[11][12] The film was a selection of the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival. Featured in the film areAmiri Baraka,Lenny Bruce,William S. Burroughs,Jim Carroll,Lawrence Ferlinghetti,Allen Ginsberg,Al Goldstein,Erica Jong,Ray Manzarek,Michael McClure,Henry Miller,John Rechy,Ed Sanders,Floyd Salas,John Sayles,Gore Vidal,John Waters, andMalcolm X.
Grove Press is referenced several times in theAMC seriesMad Men, directly or indirectly. In Season 1, Episode 3,Joan Holloway returns a borrowed copy ofD. H. Lawrence'sLady Chatterley's Lover; the book's first U.S. publisher was Grove Press, which fought numerous court battles over it. Season 2, Episode 13 is titled "Meditations in an Emergency", after a book of poetry byFrank O'Hara published by Grove Press in 1957; later in the episode, Don Draper is seen reading the book, after being challenged by a colleague ("You wouldn't like it."). The episode reportedly boosted sales of the book by 218%.[13] Season 4, Episode 11 featuresEric Berne'sGames People Play, another best-seller published by Grove Press. In Season 5, Episode 9, Don is seen at the theater holding an issue ofEvergreen Showcard, Grove's short-livedoff-Broadway theatrical magazine. In Season 7, Episode 6, Don mentions to Peggy that he and Megan had seen the filmI Am Curious (Yellow) the previous evening (Don: "[I'm] still scandalized." Peggy: "Of course Megan would want to see a dirty movie."); the 1967 film's U.S. distributor was Grove Press.
In addition to the references in the show, in 2010, the real Grove/Atlantic (the successor company to Grove Press) published the memoir of fictionalRoger Sterling:Sterling's Gold: Wit and Wisdom of an Ad Man. InYounger (TV series), Zane is referenced as being the new publisher for Grove in Season 7.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
