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For Beginners LLC is a publishing company based in
Danbury, Connecticut Danbury ( ) is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, located approximately northeast of New York City. Danbury's population as of 2020 was 86,518. It is the third-largest city in Western Connecticut, and the seventh-largest ...
, that publishes the ''For Beginners'' graphic nonfiction series of documentary comic books on complex topics, covering an array of subjects on the college level. Meant to appeal to students and "non-readers", as well as people who wish to broaden their knowledge without attending a university, the series has sold more than a million copies. The ''For Beginners'' series was launched in the mid-1970s, but became out of print and often unavailable after the 2001 death of co-founder and publisher Glenn Thompson.Berger, John, and
Margaret Busby Margaret Yvonne Busby, , Hon. FRSL (born 1944), also known as Nana Akua Ackon, is a Ghanaian-born publisher, editor, writer and broadcaster, resident in the UK. She was Britain's then youngest publisher as well as the first black female book p ...
(September 12, 2001)
"Glenn Thompson: A pioneering black publisher, he saw books as a window for opening the minds of the oppressed"
''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
''.
In 2007, a consortium of investors revived the series, reprinted back issues, and promised to publish between six and nine new issues each year. The current publisher is Dawn Reshen-Doty.


History

The company began as Writers and Readers Publishing Cooperative, a
London, England London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
-based publisher founded in 1974 by Glenn Thompson, his then-wife Sian Williams,
Richard Appignanesi Richard Appignanesi (; December 20, 1940 – April 8, 2025) was a Canadian writer and editor. He was the originating editor of the internationally successful illustrated '' For Beginners'' book series (since 1991 called the '' Introducing...'' se ...
, Lisa Appignanesi,
John Berger John Peter Berger ( ; 5 November 1926 – 2 January 2017) was an English art critic, novelist, painter and poet. His novel '' G.'' won the 1972 Booker Prize, and his essay on art criticism '' Ways of Seeing'', written as an accompaniment to t ...
,
Arnold Wesker Sir Arnold Wesker (24 May 1932 – 12 April 2016) was an English dramatist. He was the author of 50 plays, four volumes of short stories, two volumes of essays, much journalism and a book on the subject, a children's book, some poetry, and ot ...
, and Chris Searle. A publishing cooperative, the founders of Writers and Readers shared the work and the profits. (The Cooperative also operated a London bookshop at 144
Camden High Street The A400 road is an A roads in Great Britain, A road in London that runs from Charing Cross (near Trafalgar Square, in London's West End of London, West End) to Archway, London, Archway in North London. It passes some of London's most famous l ...
until the mid-1980s.) The ''For Beginners'' series has its origins in two Spanish-language books, ''Cuba para principiantes'' (1960) and ''Marx para principiantes'' (1972) by the Mexican political cartoonist and writer
Rius Eduardo Humberto del Río García (June 20, 1934 – August 8, 2017), better known by his pen name Rius, was a Mexican intellectual, political cartoonist and writer born in Zamora, Michoacán, Zamora, Michoacán. One of the most popular Mexican ...
, pocket books that put their content over in a humorous comic book way but with a serious underlying purpose. An English-language version of the first book was published in 1970 by Leviathan Press of San Francisco and
Pathfinder Press Pathfinder, Path Finder or Pathfinders may refer to: Aerospace * ''Mars Pathfinder'', a NASA Mars Lander * NASA Pathfinder, a high-altitude, solar-powered uncrewed aircraft * Space Shuttle ''Pathfinder'', a Space Shuttle test simulator Arts and ...
of New York, with no particularly great impact. However, when Richard Appignanesi published (and translated) the first English edition of ''Marx for Beginners'' (1976), it was soon clear that the collective had a hit on their hands. With a successful format identified, further ''For Beginners'' titles soon began to appear. The line's most enduring titles, all published during this period, were ''Marx for Beginners'' (1976), ''Lenin for Beginners'' (1977), ''Freud for Beginners'' (1979), '' Einstein for Beginners'' (1979), and '' Darwin for Beginners'' (1982).MacDonald, H. (2003)
"Pantheon re-offers 'for beginners' series"
''Publishers Weekly'', 250(51), 26.
In the early 1980s, questions of control arose after some members of the
cooperative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, coöperative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomy, autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned a ...
sold U.S. rights to part of the ''For Beginners'' series to
Pantheon Books Pantheon Books is an American book publishing imprint. Founded in 1942 as an independent publishing house in New York City by Kurt and Helen Wolff, it specialized in introducing progressive European works to American readers. In 1961, it was ...
. The cooperative officially disbanded in 1984. Following this rift, in 1987 Thompson took over as sole publisher and moved back to his hometown of
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
to establish a legal foothold and prevent any further unauthorized distribution of titles. Based in
Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater ...
, the company was known as Writers and Readers Publishing, Inc.; in moving the company to Harlem, Thompson’s goal was to stimulate a new
Harlem Renaissance The Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual and cultural revival of African-American music, dance, art, fashion, literature, theater, politics, and scholarship centered in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, spanning the 1920s and 1930s. At the ti ...
, in his creating an international publishing house there. He also started two other publishing companies: The Harlem River Press, publishing children’s poetry, and Black Butterfly Children's Books, books for the inner-city child. The London-based company, formally established in 1992, was known as Writers and Readers Limited. For years, Thompson spent his time traveling between England and New York to manage the two companies. In 1992, Richard Appignanesi, who had been the first editor in London for the series and had also written several of the titles, co-created the new publisher
Icon Books Richard Appignanesi (; December 20, 1940 – April 8, 2025) was a Canadian writer and editor. He was the originating editor of the internationally successful illustrated '' For Beginners'' book series (since 1991 called the '' Introducing...'' se ...
, under whose imprint he republished several of the ''For Beginner'' titles and continued to publish and expand a British version of the series called ''
Introducing Introducing or Introducing... may refer to: Albums * ''Introducing... The Beatles'', 1964 * ''Introducing... Mari Hamada'', 1993 * ''Introducing...Rubén González'', 1997 * ''Introducing ... Talk Talk'', 2003 * ''Introducing...the Best Of'', by M ...
''. Meanwhile, the New York-based Writers and Readers continued the ''For Beginners'' series, in several cases commissioning new authors to create replacement books for those being published in Britain. This led to a number of examples where the two ranges were publishing two different books on the same subject. Thompson died of cancer in London on September 7, 2001; by the time of his death, the company had published more than forty ''For Beginners'' titles. Several years after Thompson's death, investors decided to buy the rights to the titles, creating For Beginners, LLC. In the summer of 2007 For Beginners LLC re-released twenty of the prior ''For Beginners'' titles and authorized the first new title, ''Dada and Surrealism For Beginners''. In 2010, the company released ''FDR for Beginners'' by
Paul Buhle Paul Merlyn Buhle (born September 27, 1944) is an American historian, who is (retired) Senior Lecturer at Brown University, author or editor of 35 volumes, including histories of radicalism in the United States and the Caribbean, studies of pop ...
and
Sabrina Jones Sabrina Jones (born on October 6, 1960, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American painter and comic book artist, writer, illustrator, and editor. In addition to her own graphic novels, she is associated with artist/activist collectives such a ...
, with an afterword by
Harvey Pekar Harvey Lawrence Pekar (; October 8, 1939 – July 12, 2010) was an American underground comic book writer, music critic, and media personality, best known for his autobiographical ''American Splendor'' comic series. In 2003, the series inspired ...
.Pietaro, John (July 20, 2010)
"FDR and the New Deal for Beginners"
''
People's World ''People's World'', official successor to the '' Daily Worker'', is a Marxist-Leninist and American leftist national daily online news publication. Founded by activists, socialists, communists, and those active in the labor movement in the earl ...
''.


References

{{refend Book publishing companies based in Connecticut Comic book publishing companies of the United States Cooperatives based in Connecticut Educational comics Historical comics Non-fiction comics Publishing companies established in 1974