George Braziller (February 12, 1916 – March 16, 2017) was an American book publisher and the founder of George Braziller, Inc., a firm known for its literary and artistic books and its publication of foreign authors.

Life and career

Braziller was first employed as a shipping clerk, during the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

. In 1941, George and Marsha Braziller founded the "Book Find Club", which was smaller than the

Book of the Month Club Book of the Month (founded 1926) is a United States subscription-based e-commerce service that offers a selection of five to seven new hardcover books each month to its members. Books are selected and endorsed by a panel of judges, and members c ...

but exceedingly successful, "with a reputation for seriousness of purpose." They then began the "Seven Arts Book Society" in 1951 and in 1955 they began to publish their own books. The Braziller publishing firm is located at 277 Broadway, Suite 708, in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. When Braziller travelled to Europe in the late 1960s, he was in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

during the events of May 1968 which led to the collapse of the

de Gaulle Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (; ; (commonly abbreviated as CDG) 22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French army officer and statesman who led Free France against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Governm ...

government.

Henri Alleg Henri Alleg (20 July 1921 – 17 July 2013), born as Harry John Salem, was a French-Algerian journalist, director of the '' Alger républicain'' newspaper, and a member of the French Communist Party. After Editions de Minuit, a French publish ...

's autobiography ''

La Question ''La Question'' (French for "The question") is a book by Henri Alleg, published in 1958. It is famous for precisely describing the methods of torture used by French paratroopers during the Algerian War from the point of view of a victim. ''La Que ...

'', which he brought back from that trip and published in

English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...

translation, was his firm's first big success in the United States. In 2011 George Braziller retired at the age of 95. His son Michael Braziller of Persea Books, became publisher and editorial director while George's elder son Joel Braziller became secretary-treasurer and director of permissions. With a small team they maintain the Braziller tradition with new series and a rich backlist.

References

External links

George Braziller Inc. website

at Syracuse University

{{DEFAULTSORT:Braziller, George 1916 births 2017 deaths American book publishers (people) American centenarians Men centenarians People from Brooklyn Businesspeople from New York City 20th-century American businesspeople