Zephyr Books were published by
The Continental Book Company,
[Georg Svensson, ''Minnen och möten : ett liv i bokens tjänst'', pages 106–8, Bonniers, Stockholm, 1987, http://libris.kb.se/bib/7147512] a subsidiary of the Swedish
Bonnier Group
Bonnier AB (), also the Bonnier Group, is a privately held Swedish media group of 175 companies operating in 15 countries. It is controlled by the Bonnier family.
Background
The company was founded in 1804 by Gerhard Bonnier in Copenhagen, Denm ...
, from 1942 to 1950. The imprint took its name from the
Greek god of the western wind, indicating its speciality.
During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
no books in English could be imported into Sweden. The Continental Book Company was established in 1942 with the object of publishing books in English in Stockholm. The intended market comprised Sweden and other parts of the European continent where it was possible to sell English books in spite of the war, namely Switzerland, Portugal and Turkey. Considerable quantities of Zephyr Books were also exported to Hungary, Italy, occupied Denmark and the non-occupied zone of France.
After the war it was decided to continue, and even expand, the series. The intention was to replace the English book series published by
Tauchnitz
Tauchnitz was the name of a family of German printers and publishers. They published English language literature for distribution on the European continent outside Great Britain, including initial serial publications of novels by Charles Dickens. ...
before the war. The total destruction of the Leipzig book industry made it clear that Tauchnitz would not be able to start work again for some
time. Sweden, on the other hand, had its means of production intact and abundant supplies of paper.
Publication was extended as fast as the continental market was reopened for freer trade, and the number of volumes was doubled within a year. The series was given a distinctive note by its "special volumes", such as its anthologies of prose and verse, and an edition of
Lewis Carroll's "
Alice in Wonderland
''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (commonly ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English novel by Lewis Carroll. It details the story of a young girl named Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world of anthropomorphic creatur ...
" with illustrations by
Mervyn Peake
Mervyn Laurence Peake (9 July 1911 – 17 November 1968) was an English writer, artist, poet, and illustrator. He is best known for what are usually referred to as the '' Gormenghast'' books. The four works were part of what Peake conceived ...
, which appeared as a Zephyr Book in 1946, two years before it was published in London.
Soon, however, competition from British and American publishers became too strong, and the publication of the Zephyr series ended in 1950. By then 167 volumes had been published.
The covers were colour-coded depending on the content: red for modern American authors, blue for modern English authors, green for classics, yellow for detective fiction and thrillers, grey for anthologies and special volumes, light blue for poetry and drama, and purple for memoirs and biographies.
List of Zephyr Books
References
{{reflist
External links
Zephyr Books- detailed essay and list by a collector of the series
Book publishing companies of Sweden
Swedish books
Series of books