Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. () is an American publishing house that was founded by
Alfred A. Knopf Sr. and
Blanche Knopf
Blanche Wolf Knopf (July 30, 1894 – June 4, 1966) was the president of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., and wife of publisher Alfred A. Knopf Sr., with whom she established the firm in 1915. Blanche traveled the world seeking new authors and was especia ...
in 1915. Blanche and Alfred traveled abroad regularly and were known for publishing European, Asian, and Latin American writers in addition to leading American literary trends. It was acquired by
Random House
Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...
in 1960, and is now part of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group division of
Penguin Random House
Penguin Random House LLC is an Anglo-American multinational corporation, multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate publishing company formed on July 1, 2013, from the merger of Penguin Group and Random House.
On April 2, 2020, Bertels ...
which is owned by the German conglomerate
Bertelsmann
Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA () is a German private multinational conglomerate corporation based in Gütersloh, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is one of the world's largest media conglomerates, and is also active in the service sector and ...
. The Knopf publishing house is associated with its
borzoi
The Borzoi or Russian Hunting Sighthound is a Russian breed of hunting dog of sighthound type. It was formerly used for wolf hunting, and until 1936 was known as the Russian Wolfhound.
Etymology
The system by which Russians over the ages ...
colophon, which was designed by co-founder
Blanche Knopf
Blanche Wolf Knopf (July 30, 1894 – June 4, 1966) was the president of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., and wife of publisher Alfred A. Knopf Sr., with whom she established the firm in 1915. Blanche traveled the world seeking new authors and was especia ...
in 1925.
History
Early years
1915–1920
Knopf was founded in 1915 by
Alfred A. Knopf Sr. along with
Blanche Knopf
Blanche Wolf Knopf (July 30, 1894 – June 4, 1966) was the president of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., and wife of publisher Alfred A. Knopf Sr., with whom she established the firm in 1915. Blanche traveled the world seeking new authors and was especia ...
, on a $5,000 advance from his father, Samuel Knopf.
The first office was located in New York's
Candler Building. The publishing house was officially incorporated in 1918, with Alfred Knopf as president, Blanche Knopf as vice president, and Samuel Knopf as treasurer.
From the start, Knopf focused on European translations and high-brow works of literature. Among their initial publications were French author
Émile Augier
Guillaume Victor Émile Augier (; 17 September 182025 October 1889) was a French dramatist. He was the thirteenth member to occupy seat 1 of the Académie française on 31 March 1857.
Biography
Augier was born at Valence, Drôme
Valence (, ...
's ''Four Plays'', Ukrainian writer
Nikolai Gogol
Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol; uk, link=no, Мико́ла Васи́льович Го́голь, translit=Mykola Vasyliovych Hohol; (russian: Яновский; uk, Яновський, translit=Yanovskyi) ( – ) was a Russian novelist, ...
's ''
Taras Bulba
''Taras Bulba'' (russian: «Тарас Бульба»; ) is a romanticized historical novella set in the first half of the 17th century, written by Nikolai Gogol (1809-1852). It features elderly Zaporozhian Cossack Taras Bulba and his sons And ...
'', Polish novelist
Stanisław Przybyszewski
Stanisław Przybyszewski (; 7 May 1868 – 23 November 1927) was a Polish novelist, dramatist, and poet of the decadent naturalistic school. His drama is associated with the Symbolist movement. He wrote both in German and in Polish.
Life
Stanis ...
's novel ''
Homo Sapiens
Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture, ...
'', and French writer
Guy de Maupassant
Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant (, ; ; 5 August 1850 – 6 July 1893) was a 19th-century French author, remembered as a master of the short story form, as well as a representative of the Naturalist school, who depicted human lives, destin ...
's ''Yvette, a Novelette, and Ten Other Stories''. During World War I these books were cheap to obtain and helped establish Knopf as an American firm publishing European works. Their first bestseller was a new edition of ''
Green Mansions
''Green Mansions: A Romance of the Tropical Forest'' (1904) is an exotic romance by William Henry Hudson about a traveller to the Guyana jungle of southeastern Venezuela and his encounter with a forest-dwelling girl named Rima.
The principa ...
'', a novel by
W. H. Hudson
William Henry Hudson (4 August 1841 – 18 August 1922) – known in Argentina as Guillermo Enrique Hudson – was an English Argentines, Anglo-Argentine author, natural history, naturalist and ornithology, ornithologist.
Life
Hudson was the ...
which went through nine printings by 1919 and sold over 20,000 copies. Their first original American novel, ''The Three Black Pennys'' by
Joseph Hergesheimer
Joseph Hergesheimer (February 15, 1880 – April 25, 1954) was an American writer of the early 20th century known for his naturalistic novels of decadent life amongst the very wealthy.
Early life
Hergesheimer was born on February 15, 1880 Phil ...
, was published in 1917.
1920s
With the start of the 1920s Knopf began using innovative advertising techniques to draw attention to their books and authors. Beginning in 1920, Knopf produced a
chapbook
A chapbook is a small publication of up to about 40 pages, sometimes bound with a saddle stitch.
In early modern Europe a chapbook was a type of printed street literature. Produced cheaply, chapbooks were commonly small, paper-covered bookle ...
, for the purpose of promoting new books.
The Borzoi was published periodically over the years, the first being a hardback called the Borzoi and sometimes quarterly as the Borzoi Quarterly. For Floyd Dell's coming-of-age novel, ''Moon-Calf'', they paid men to walk the streets of the financial and theatre districts dressed in artist costumes with
sandwich board
A sandwich board is a type of advertisement tool composed of two boards with a message or graphic on it and being either carried by a person, with one board in front and one behind in a triangle shape, hinged along the top, creating a "sandwich" ...
s. The placards had a copy of the book for browsing and directed interested buyers to local book shops.
![RR v01 d077 russian literature - advertisement by alfred a knopf](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e6/RR_v01_d077_russian_literature_-_advertisement_by_alfred_a_knopf.jpg)
The unique look of their books along with their expertise in advertising their authors drew
Willa Cather
Willa Sibert Cather (; born Wilella Sibert Cather; December 7, 1873 – April 24, 1947) was an American writer known for her novels of life on the Great Plains, including ''O Pioneers!'', '' The Song of the Lark'', and ''My Ántonia''. In 1923, ...
to leave her previous publisher
Houghton Mifflin
The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star.
Computer scientists and mathematicians often voc ...
to join Alfred A. Knopf. As she was still under contract for her novels, the Knopfs suggested publishing a collection of her short stories, ''
Youth and the Bright Medusa
''Youth and the Bright Medusa'' is a collection of short stories by Willa Cather, published in 1920. Several were published in an earlier collection, '' The Troll Garden''.
Contents
This collection contains the following stories:
* "Coming, Ap ...
'' in 1920. Cather was pleased with the results and the advertisement of the book in ''
The New Republic
''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hum ...
'' and would go on to publish sixteen books with Knopf including their first Pulitzer prize winner, ''
One of Ours
''One of Ours'' is a 1922 novel by Willa Cather that won the 1923 Pulitzer Prize for the Novel. It tells the story of the life of Claude Wheeler, a Nebraska native in the first decades of the 20th century. The son of a successful farmer and an in ...
''.
Before they had married, Alfred had promised Blanche that they would be equal partners in the publishing company, but it was clear by the company's fifth anniversary that this was not to be the case. Knopf published a celebratory 5th anniversary book in which Alfred was the focus of anecdotes by authors and Blanche's name was only mentioned once to note that "Mrs. Knopf" had found a manuscript. This despite ample evidence from authors and others that Blanche was in fact the soul of the company. This was covered extensively in ''The Lady with the Borzoi'' by Laura Claridge.
In 1923 Knopf also started publishing periodicals, beginning with ''
The American Mercury
''The American Mercury'' was an American magazine published from 1924Staff (Dec. 31, 1923)"Bichloride of Mercury."''Time''. to 1981. It was founded as the brainchild of H. L. Mencken and drama critic George Jean Nathan. The magazine featured wri ...
'', founded by H. L. Mencken and George Jean Nathan, which it published through 1934.
1923 also marked the year that Knopf published
Kahlil Gibran
Gibran Khalil Gibran ( ar, جُبْرَان خَلِيل جُبْرَان, , , or , ; January 6, 1883 – April 10, 1931), usually referred to in English as Kahlil Gibran (pronounced ), was a Lebanese-American writer, poet and visual artist ...
's ''
The Prophet''. Knopf had published Gibran's earlier works which had disappointing sales. In its first year, ''The Prophet'' only sold 1,159 copies. It would double sales the next year and keep doubling becoming one of the firm's most successful books. In 1965 the book sold 240,000 copies.
Approaching it's 100 year anniversary in 2023 The Prophet has been translated into ove
100 Languagesand to date has never gone out of print for Knopf.
In the 1920s, Knopf sometimes withdrew or censored their books when threatened by
John Sumner, such as
Floyd Dell
Floyd James Dell (June 28, 1887 – July 23, 1969) was an American newspaper and magazine editor, literary critic, novelist, playwright, and poet. Dell has been called "one of the most flamboyant, versatile and influential American Men of Letters ...
's ''Janet March'' or
George Egerton
Mary Chavelita Dunne Bright (born Mary Elizabeth Annie Dunne; 14 December 1859 – 12 August 1945), better known by her pen name George Egerton (pronounced Edg'er-ton), was a writer of short stories, novels, plays and translations, noted for ...
's 1899 translation of ''
Hunger
In politics, humanitarian aid, and the social sciences, hunger is defined as a condition in which a person does not have the physical or financial capability to eat sufficient food to meet basic nutritional needs for a sustained period. In the ...
''.
1930s
Samuel Knopf died in 1932. William A. Koshland joined the company in 1934, and worked with the firm for more than fifty years, rising to take the positions of president and chairman of the board. Blanche became president in 1957 when Alfred became chairman of the board, and worked steadily for the firm until her death in 1966. Alfred Knopf retired in 1972, becoming chairman emeritus of the firm until his death in 1984. Alfred Knopf also had a summer home in
Purchase, New York
Purchase is a hamlet in the town and village of Harrison, in Westchester County, New York, United States. One myth explains that its name is derived from Harrison's purchase, where John Harrison was to be granted as much land as he could ride in ...
.
1940s
Following the
Good Neighbor policy
The Good Neighbor policy ( ) was the foreign policy of the administration of United States President Franklin Roosevelt towards Latin America. Although the policy was implemented by the Roosevelt administration, President Woodrow Wilson had pr ...
, Blanche Knopf visited South America in 1942, so the firm could start producing texts from there. She was one of the first publishers to visit Europe after World War II. Her trips, and those of other editors, brought in new writers from Europe, South America, and Asia. Alfred traveled to Brazil in 1961, which spurred a corresponding interest on his part in South America. Penn Publishing Company was acquired in 1943. The Knopfs' son, Alfred "Pat" Jr., was hired on as secretary and trade books manager after the war.
1950s
In 1952, editor
Judith Jones
Judith Jones (née Bailey; March 10, 1924 – August 2, 2017) was an American writer and editor, best known for having rescued ''The Diary of Anne Frank'' from the reject pile. Jones also championed Julia Child's ''Mastering the Art of French ...
joined Knopf as an editor. Jones, who had discovered ''
Anne Frank
Annelies Marie "Anne" Frank (, ; 12 June 1929 – )Research by The Anne Frank House in 2015 revealed that Frank may have died in February 1945 rather than in March, as Dutch authorities had long assumed"New research sheds new light on Anne Fra ...
: Diary of a Young Girl'' while working at Doubleday, acquired
Julia Child
Julia Carolyn Child (née McWilliams; August 15, 1912 – August 13, 2004) was an American cooking teacher, author, and television personality. She is recognized for bringing French cuisine to the American public with her debut cookbook, '' ...
's ''Mastering the Art of French Cooking'' for Knopf. Jones would remain with Knopf, retiring in 2011 as a senior editor and vice-president after a career that included working with
John Updike
John Hoyer Updike (March 18, 1932 – January 27, 2009) was an American novelist, poet, short-story writer, art critic, and literary critic. One of only four writers to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once (the others being Booth ...
and
Anne Tyler
Anne Tyler (born October 25, 1941) is an American novelist, short story writer, and literary critic. She has published twenty-four novels, including ''Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant'' (1982), ''The Accidental Tourist'' (1985), and '' Breathin ...
.
Pat Knopf left his parents' publishing company in 1959 to launch his own,
Atheneum Publishers
Atheneum Books was a New York City publishing house established in 1959 by Alfred A. Knopf, Jr., Simon Michael Bessie and Hiram Haydn. Simon & Schuster has owned Atheneum properties since its acquisition of Macmillan in 1994 and it created Athene ...
, with two other partners. The story made the front page of ''The New York Times''.
In a 1957 advertisement in ''
The Atlantic Monthly
''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science.
It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...
'', Alfred A. Knopf published the Borzoi Credo. The credo includes a list of what Knopf's beliefs for publishing including the statement that he never published an unworthy book. Among a list of beliefs listed is the final one—"I believe that magazines, movies, television, and radio will never replace good books."
Acquisition by Random House
In 1960
Random House
Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...
acquired Alfred A. Knopf.
It is believed that the decision to sell was prompted by
Alfred A. Knopf Jr.
Alfred Abraham Knopf Jr. (June 17, 1918 – February 14, 2009) was an American publisher. He was one of the founders of Atheneum Publishers in 1959.
Biography
He was the only child of publisher Alfred A. Knopf Sr. and Blanche Wolf. He was born i ...
, leaving Knopf to found his own book company,
Atheneum Books
Atheneum Books was a New York City publishing house established in 1959 by Alfred A. Knopf, Jr., Simon Michael Bessie and Hiram Haydn. Simon & Schuster has owned Atheneum properties since its acquisition of Macmillan in 1994 and it created Athene ...
, in 1959.
Since its founding, Knopf has paid close attention to design and
typography
Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable and appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, point sizes, line lengths, line-spacing ( leading), and ...
, employing notable designers and typographers including
William Addison Dwiggins
William Addison Dwiggins (June 19, 1880 – December 25, 1956), was an American type designer, calligrapher, and book designer. He attained prominence as an illustrator and commercial artist, and he brought to the designing of type and books so ...
, Harry Ford,
Steven Heller,
Chip Kidd
Charles Kidd (born 1964) is an American graphic designer known for book covers.
Early childhood
Born in Shillington in Berks County, Pennsylvania, Kidd grew up being fascinated and heavily inspired by American popular culture. Comic books w ...
,
Lorraine Louie,
Peter Mendelsund
Peter Mendelsund is a novelist, graphic designer known for his book and magazine covers, and the creative director of ''The Atlantic''. Mendelsund has been described by the ''New York Times'' as "one of the top designers at work today" and "the be ...
,
Bruce Rogers,
Rudolf Ruzicka, and
Beatrice Warde
Beatrice Lamberton Warde (September 20, 1900 – September 16, 1969, née Beatrice Becker) was a twentieth-century writer and scholar of typography. As a marketing manager for the British Monotype Corporation, she was influential in the deve ...
. Knopf books conclude with an unnumbered page titled "A Note on the Type", which describes the history of the
typeface
A typeface (or font family) is the design of lettering that can include variations in size, weight (e.g. bold), slope (e.g. italic), width (e.g. condensed), and so on. Each of these variations of the typeface is a font.
There are list of type ...
used for the book. In addition, Knopf books date the year of the book's current printing on the title page.
Knopf published textbooks until 1988, when Random House's schools and colleges division was sold to
McGraw Hill
McGraw Hill is an American educational publishing company and one of the "big three" educational publishers that publishes educational content, software, and services for pre-K through postgraduate education. The company also publishes referenc ...
.
In 1991, Knopf revived the "
Everyman's Library
Everyman's Library is a series of reprints of classic literature, primarily from the Western canon. It is currently published in hardback by Random House. It was originally an imprint of J. M. Dent (itself later a division of Weidenfeld & Ni ...
" series, originally published in England in the early 20th century. This series consists of classics of world literature in affordable hardcover editions. The series has grown over the years to include lines of ''Children's Classics'' and ''Pocket Poets''.
Random House was acquired by
Bertelsmann AG
Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA () is a German private multinational conglomerate corporation based in Gütersloh, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is one of the world's largest media conglomerates, and is also active in the service sector and e ...
in 1998.
In late 2008 and early 2009, the Knopf Publishing Group merged with
Doubleday to form the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Random House has been owned since its 2013 merger of
Penguin Group
Penguin Group is a British trade book publisher and part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by the German media conglomerate Bertelsmann. The new company was created by a merger that was finalised on 1 July 2013, with Bertelsmann initial ...
by
Penguin Random House
Penguin Random House LLC is an Anglo-American multinational corporation, multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate publishing company formed on July 1, 2013, from the merger of Penguin Group and Random House.
On April 2, 2020, Bertels ...
, a
joint venture
A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acces ...
between
Bertelsmann
Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA () is a German private multinational conglomerate corporation based in Gütersloh, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is one of the world's largest media conglomerates, and is also active in the service sector and ...
(53%) and
Pearson PLC
Pearson plc is a British multinational corporation, multinational publishing and education company headquartered in London, England.
It was founded as a construction business in the 1840s but switched to publishing in the 1920s.J. A. Spende ...
(47%).
Many of Knopf's hardcover books are published later as
Vintage paperbacks. Vintage Books is a sister imprint of Random House.
In October 2012, Bertelsmann entered into talks with rival conglomerate
Pearson plc
Pearson plc is a British multinational corporation, multinational publishing and education company headquartered in London, England.
It was founded as a construction business in the 1840s but switched to publishing in the 1920s.J. A. Spende ...
, over the possibility of combining their respective publishing companies, Random House and
Penguin Group
Penguin Group is a British trade book publisher and part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by the German media conglomerate Bertelsmann. The new company was created by a merger that was finalised on 1 July 2013, with Bertelsmann initial ...
. The merger was completed on 1 July 2013 and the new company is
Penguin Random House
Penguin Random House LLC is an Anglo-American multinational corporation, multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate publishing company formed on July 1, 2013, from the merger of Penguin Group and Random House.
On April 2, 2020, Bertels ...
. Bertelsmann owns 53% of the joint venture while Pearson owns 47%.
At the time of the acquisition the combined companies controlled 25% of the book business, with more than 10,000 employees and 250 independent publishing imprints and with about $3.9 billion in annual revenues.
The move to consolidate was to provide leverage against
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational technology company focusing on e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. It has been referred to as "one of the most influential economi ...
and battle the shrinking state of
bookstore
Bookselling is the commercial trading of books which is the retail and distribution end of the publishing process. People who engage in bookselling are called booksellers, bookdealers, bookpeople, bookmen, or bookwomen. The founding of librari ...
s.
In 2015, Knopf celebrated its 100th anniversary by publishing a commemorative book, ''Alfred A. Knopf, 1915–2015: A Century of Publishing.''
Notable people
Notable editors and publishers
While there have been many notable editors at Knopf there have only been four editors-in-chief:
Alfred A. Knopf, Sr.
Alfred Abraham Knopf Sr. (September 12, 1892 August 11, 1984) was an American publisher of the 20th century, and co-founder of Alfred A. Knopf, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. His contemporaries included the likes of Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer, and (o ...
,
Robert Gottlieb
Robert Adams Gottlieb (born April 29, 1931) is an American writer and editor. He has been editor-in-chief of Simon & Schuster, Alfred A. Knopf, and ''The New Yorker''.
Early life and education
Robert Gottlieb was born to a Jewish family in New Y ...
,
Sonny Mehta
Ajai Singh "Sonny" Mehta (9 November 1942McFadden, Robert D. (31 December 2019) ''The New York Times''. – 30 December 2019) was an Indian editor and the editor-in-chief of Alfred A. Knopf and chairman of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.
...
(who died in 2019) and Reagan Arthur.
Other influential editors at Knopf included
Harold Strauss
Harold Strauss (1907–1975) was editor-in-chief of Alfred A. Knopf Inc. from 1942 until 1966. He is credited as introducing postwar Japanese fiction to American audiences with Jirō Osaragi's ''Homecoming'' and Jun'ichirō Tanizaki's ''Some Pre ...
(Japanese literature),
Herbert Weinstock
Herbert Weinstock (16 November 1905 – 21 October 1971) was an American writer, music historian, editor and translator. A prolific writer on musical subjects, he was particularly known for his biographies of the bel canto opera composers Rossini, ...
(biography of musical composers),
Judith Jones
Judith Jones (née Bailey; March 10, 1924 – August 2, 2017) was an American writer and editor, best known for having rescued ''The Diary of Anne Frank'' from the reject pile. Jones also championed Julia Child's ''Mastering the Art of French ...
(culinary texts),
Peter Mendelsund
Peter Mendelsund is a novelist, graphic designer known for his book and magazine covers, and the creative director of ''The Atlantic''. Mendelsund has been described by the ''New York Times'' as "one of the top designers at work today" and "the be ...
(art director and book cover designer) as well as Angus Cameron, Charles Elliott,
Gary Fisketjon Gary Fisketjon (born 1954) was an Editor and vice-president of Knopf Publishing until his dismissal in May 2019. also accesherevia Wayback Machine
Fisketjon created the Vintage Contemporaries line of paperbacks at Random House. He was the editorial ...
, Lee Goerner,
Ashbel Green
Ashbel Green (July 6, 1762 – May 19, 1848) was an American Presbyterian minister and academic.
Biography
Born in Hanover Township, New Jersey, Green served as a sergeant of the New Jersey militia during the American Revolutionary War, and went ...
,
Carol Brown Janeway
Carol Janet Brown Janeway (1 February 1944 – 3 August 2015) was a Scottish-American editor and literary translator into English. She is best known for her translation of Bernhard Schlink's ''The Reader''.
Biography
Carol Janet Brown was bor ...
,
Michael Magzis
Michael may refer to:
People
* Michael (given name), a given name
* Michael (surname), including a list of people with the surname Michael
Given name "Michael"
* Michael (archangel), ''first'' of God's archangels in the Jewish, Christian and ...
,
Anne McCormick
Anne O'Hare McCormick (16 May 1880 – 29 May 1954) was an English-American journalist who worked as a foreign news correspondent for ''The New York Times.'' In an era where the field was almost exclusively "a man's world", she became the first w ...
,
Nancy Nicholas,
Daniel Okrent
Daniel Okrent (born April 2, 1948) is an American writer and editing, editor. He is best known for having served as the first public editor of ''The New York Times'' newspaper, inventing Rotisserie League Baseball, and for writing several books ( ...
,
Regina Ryan
Regina (Latin for "queen") may refer to:
Places Canada
* Regina, Saskatchewan, the capital city of the province
** Regina (electoral district)
** Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Regina
France
* Régina, French Guiana, a commune
United States
* R ...
,
Sophie Wilkins
Sophie is a version of the female given name Sophia, meaning "wise".
People with the name Born in the Middle Ages
* Sophie, Countess of Bar (c. 1004 or 1018–1093), sovereign Countess of Bar and lady of Mousson
* Sophie of Thuringia, Duchess of ...
, and
Victoria Wilson
Victoria "Vicky" Wilson (born 1949) is an American publishing executive and writer who served on the United States Commission on Civil Rights (USCCR) from 2000 through 2001.
Early and personal life
Wilson was born in New York City and grew up ...
. Knopf also employed literary scouts to good advantage.
[''Knopf, Alfred A.: Portrait of a Publisher, 1915-1965''. 2 vols. New York: Typophiles, 1965.]
Notable authors
Alfred A. Knopf has published thousands of books from thousands of authors, including
Albert Camus
Albert Camus ( , ; ; 7 November 1913 – 4 January 1960) was a French philosopher, author, dramatist, and journalist. He was awarded the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature at the age of 44, the second-youngest recipient in history. His work ...
,
John Banville
William John Banville (born 8 December 1945) is an Irish novelist, short story writer, adapter of dramas and screenwriter. Though he has been described as "the heir to Proust, via Nabokov", Banville himself maintains that W. B. Yeats and Henry J ...
,
Carl Bernstein
Carl Milton Bernstein ( ; born February 14, 1944) is an American investigative journalist and author. While a young reporter for ''The Washington Post'' in 1972, Bernstein was teamed up with Bob Woodward, and the two did much of the original new ...
,
Elizabeth Bowen
Elizabeth Bowen CBE (; 7 June 1899 – 22 February 1973) was an Irish-British novelist and short story writer notable for her books about the "big house" of Irish landed Protestants as well her fiction about life in wartime London.
Life
E ...
,
Frederick Buechner
Carl Frederick Buechner ( ; July 11, 1926 – August 15, 2022) was an American author, Presbyterianism, Presbyterian Minister (Christianity), minister, preacher, and theologian. The author of thirty-nine published books, his work encompassed d ...
,
Robert Caro
Robert Allan Caro (born October 30, 1935) is an American journalist and author known for his biographies of United States political figures Robert Moses and Lyndon B. Johnson.
After working for many years as a reporter, Caro wrote ''The Power Br ...
,
Willa Cather
Willa Sibert Cather (; born Wilella Sibert Cather; December 7, 1873 – April 24, 1947) was an American writer known for her novels of life on the Great Plains, including ''O Pioneers!'', '' The Song of the Lark'', and ''My Ántonia''. In 1923, ...
,
Julia Child
Julia Carolyn Child (née McWilliams; August 15, 1912 – August 13, 2004) was an American cooking teacher, author, and television personality. She is recognized for bringing French cuisine to the American public with her debut cookbook, '' ...
,
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...
,
Miguel Covarrubias
Miguel Covarrubias, also known as José Miguel Covarrubias Duclaud (22 November 1904 — 4 February 1957) was a Mexican painter, caricaturist, illustrator, ethnologist and art historian. Along with his American colleague Matthew W. Stirling, ...
,
Joan Didion
Joan Didion (; December 5, 1934 – December 23, 2021) was an American writer. Along with Tom Wolfe, Hunter S. Thompson and Gay Talese, she is considered one of the pioneers of New Journalism. Didion's career began in the 1950s after she won an ...
,
Bret Easton Ellis
Bret Easton Ellis (born March 7, 1964) is an American author, screenwriter, short-story writer, and director. Ellis was first regarded as one of the so-called literary Brat Pack and is a self-proclaimed satirist whose trademark technique, as a w ...
,
James Ellroy
Lee Earle "James" Ellroy (born March 4, 1948) is an American crime fiction writer and essayist. Ellroy has become known for a telegrammatic prose style in his most recent work, wherein he frequently omits connecting words and uses only short, sta ...
,
Martin Gardner
Martin Gardner (October 21, 1914May 22, 2010) was an American popular mathematics and popular science writer with interests also encompassing scientific skepticism, micromagic, philosophy, religion, and literatureespecially the writings of Lewis ...
,
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Jack London
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Elinor Wylie
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.
Awards
Logo
The
logo
A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name it represents as in a wordma ...
for Knopf is a Russian wolfhound or
Borzoi
The Borzoi or Russian Hunting Sighthound is a Russian breed of hunting dog of sighthound type. It was formerly used for wolf hunting, and until 1936 was known as the Russian Wolfhound.
Etymology
The system by which Russians over the ages ...
.
Blanche Knopf
Blanche Wolf Knopf (July 30, 1894 – June 4, 1966) was the president of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., and wife of publisher Alfred A. Knopf Sr., with whom she established the firm in 1915. Blanche traveled the world seeking new authors and was especia ...
suggested the Borzoi for the logo to imply motion and the logo was used on both the spine and the title page of their books.
References
Sources cited
*
External links
*
Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Records, 1873-1996at the
Harry Ransom Center
The Harry Ransom Center (until 1983 the Humanities Research Center) is an archive, library and museum at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the Americas and Europe for the pur ...
at the
University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...
The Borzoi 1920: being a sort of record of five years' publishing
{{Use dmy dates, date=June 2017
Book publishing companies based in New York (state)
Publishing companies based in New York City
Publishing companies established in 1915
1915 establishments in New York City
1960 mergers and acquisitions
Random House