Farrar, Straus, and Company was founded in 1945[5] by Roger W. Straus Jr. and John C. Farrar.[3][6] The first book wasYank: The G.I. Story of the War, a compilation of articles that appeared inYank, the Army Weekly, thenThere Were Two Pirates, a novel byJames Branch Cabell.
The first years of existence were rough until they published the diet bookLook Younger, Live Longer byGayelord Hauser in 1950. The book went on to sell 500,000 copies and Straus said that the book carried them along for a while.[3] In the early years, Straus and his wife Dorothea, went prospecting for books in Italy. It was there that they found the memoirChrist Stopped at Eboli byCarlo Levi and other rising Italian authors:Alberto Moravia,Giovannino Guareschi andCesare Pavese.[3] Farrar, Straus also poached or lured away authors from other publishers—one wasEdmund Wilson, who was unhappy withRandom House at the time but remained with Farrar, Straus for the remainder of his career.[3]
In 1950, the name changed to Farrar, Straus & Young (forStanley Young, a playwright, author (at Farrar & Rinehart[7]), a literary critic forThe New York Times, and an original stockholder and board member).[8][9][10]
Robert Giroux joined the company in 1955, and after he later became a partner, the name was changed to Farrar, Straus and Giroux.[3] Giroux had been working for Harcourt and had been angered when Harcourt refused to allow him to publishSalinger'sCatcher in the Rye.[3] Giroux brought many literary authors with him includingThomas Merton,John Berryman,Robert Lowell,Flannery O'Connor,Jack Kerouac,Peter Taylor,Randall Jarrell,T.S. Eliot, andBernard Malamud.[3] Alan Williams described Giroux's "Pied Piper sweep" as "almost certainly the greatest number of authors to follow, on their own initiative, a single editor from house to house in the history of modern publishing."[3] In 1964, Straus named Giroux chairman of the board and officially added Giroux's name to the publishing company.[3]
Straus continued to run the company for twenty years after his partner Farrar died, until 1993 when he sold a majority interest of the company to the privately owned German publishing conglomerateGeorg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group.[3][12][13] Straus offered FSG to the Holtzbrinck family because of their reputation for publishing serious works of literature.[3]
Jonathan Galassi served as both president and publisher until 2018.[14] From 2004 to 2021, Andrew Mandel served as deputy publisher. In 2008, Mitzi Angel came from Fourth Estate in the UK to be publisher of theFaber and Faber Inc. imprint. In 2018, Angel succeeded Galassi as publisher, and was named president in 2021.[15] Jenna Johnson was named vice president and editor in chief in December 2021, taking the baton from Eric Chinski who was named senior executive editor after 15 years as editor in chief.[16] Other notable editors includeSean McDonald andAlex Star.
In February 2015, FSG and Faber and Faber announced the end of their partnership. All books scheduled for release and previously released under the imprint were moved to the FSGcolophon by August 2016.[17]
MCD/FSG, which is viewed as a kind of a lab to experiment with new styles and genres. The imprint is headed by Sean McDonald, who was joined by Daphne Durham, formerly editor-in-chief and publisher of Amazon Publishing, as executive director to launch the imprint. Durham left MCD in 2023 to join Putnum.[28][29][30]
FSG Originals
AUWA Books is an imprint directed by Questlove, the celebrated musician, producer, director, and author devoted to finding inspiring new stories and connecting readers to lost voices while building a community of curious minds.[31][32]
Quanta Books is a partnership between FSG and the Simons Foundation which illuminates humanity’s quest to understand the universe. From the founding editor of Pulitzer Prize-winningQuanta Magazine.[33][34]
Scientific American / FSG,[39] led by Amanda Moon, published non-fiction popular science books for the general reader. Its authors includedJesse Bering,Daniel Chamovitz, Kevin Dutton, andCaleb Scharf.
^abcdefghijklSilverman, Al (2008).The Time of Their Lives: The Golden Age of Great American Book Publishers, Their Editors, and Authors. Truman Talley.ISBN978-0312-35003-1.
^Macmillan."About Macmillan".us.macmillan.com.Archived from the original on July 26, 2022. RetrievedJune 19, 2016.
^Landler, Mark (October 14, 2002)."Another German Publisher Mulls Its Wartime Past".The New York Times.ISSN0362-4331.Archived from the original on January 15, 2022. RetrievedJanuary 15, 2022.The Von Holtzbrinck Group, the conglomerate that owns Farrar Straus and Giroux and other gilded names in American publishing, has disclosed that it has hired a writer to research the company's history from 1933 to 1945.
^ab"House of Galassi".publishersweekly.com.Archived from the original on August 16, 2018. RetrievedAugust 16, 2018.
^Zeitchik, Steven (June 14, 2004)."Crichton gets imprint at FSG".Publishers Weekly.Archived from the original on August 16, 2018. RetrievedFebruary 20, 2014.
