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Farrar, Straus and Giroux

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Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Parent companyMacmillan Publishers
Founded1946; 78 years ago (1946)
Founder
Country of originUnited States
Headquarters locationEquitable Building
New York City, New York
Distribution
Key people
ImprintsMCD, FSG Originals
Official websitewww.fsgbooks.com

Farrar, Straus and Giroux (FSG) is an American book publishing company, founded in 1946 by Roger Williams Straus Jr. and John C. Farrar.[3] FSG is known for publishing literary books, and its authors have won numerous awards, including Pulitzer Prizes, National Book Awards, and Nobel Prizes. As of 2016 the publisher is a division of Macmillan, whose parent company is the German publishing conglomerate Holtzbrinck Publishing Group.[4]

Founding

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Farrar, Straus, and Company was founded in 1945[5] by Roger W. Straus Jr. and John C. Farrar.[3][6] The first book was Yank: The G.I. Story of the War, a compilation of articles that appeared in Yank, the Army Weekly, then There Were Two Pirates, a novel by James Branch Cabell.

The first years of existence were rough until they published the diet book Look Younger, Live Longer by Gayelord 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 memoir Christ Stopped at Eboli by Carlo Levi and other rising Italian authors: Alberto Moravia, Giovannino Guareschi and Cesare Pavese.[3] Farrar, Straus also poached or lured away authors from other publishers—one was Edmund Wilson, who was unhappy with Random 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 (for Stanley Young, a playwright, author (at Farrar & Rinehart[7]), a literary critic for The New York Times, and an original stockholder and board member).[8][9][10]

Merger

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In 1953, Pellegrini & Cudahy merged with Farrar, Straus & Young.[11]

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 publish Salinger's Catcher in the Rye.[3] Giroux brought many literary authors with him including Thomas Merton, John Berryman, Robert Lowell, Flannery O'Connor, Jack Kerouac, Peter Taylor, Randall Jarrell, T.S. Eliot, and Bernard 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]

Sale

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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 conglomerate Georg 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]

21st century

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Jonathan Galassi served as both president and publisher until 2018.[14] Andrew Mandel joined in 2004 as deputy publisher. Eric Chinski is editor-in-chief. In 2008, Mitzi Angel came from Fourth Estate in the UK to be publisher of the Faber and Faber Inc. imprint. In 2018, Angel succeeded Galassi as publisher, and was named president in 2021.[15] Other notable editors include Sean McDonald, Daphne Durham, and Alex 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 will be moved to the FSG colophon by August 2016.[16]

Name history

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  • Farrar, Straus, and Company (1945–1951)[17]
  • Farrar, Straus and Young (1950–1956)[18][19]
  • Farrar, Straus and Cudahy (1953–1963)[20][21] – acquired L.C. Page & Co. in 1957[22][23][24]
  • Farrar, Straus, and Company (1963–1964)[25] after Cudahy left the firm.[14]
  • Farrar, Straus and Giroux (1964–present)[26]

Current imprints

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Former imprints

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Bibliography

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Main article: List of Farrar, Straus and Giroux books

Books for Young Readers

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FSG Books for Young Readers publishes National Book Award winners Madeleine L'Engle (1980), William Steig (1983), Louis Sachar (1998), and Polly Horvath (2003). Books for Young Readers also publishes Natalie Babbitt, Roald Dahl, Jack Gantos, George Selden, Uri Shulevitz, Ozge Samanci, and Peter Sis.

Awards

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Winners of the Nobel Prize in Literature
Winners of the Nobel Peace Prize
Winners of the Pulitzer Prize
Winners of the National Book Award

Notable authors

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Staff

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Jack Kerouac's then-girlfriend Joyce Johnson, started work in 1957, when Sheila Cudahy was a partner at the firm.[40]

References

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  1. ^ "Melia Publishing – List of client publishers". Archived from the original on December 27, 2017. Retrieved December 27, 2017.
  2. ^ "Angel appointed president at Farrar, Straus & Giroux". Archived from the original on October 27, 2021. Retrieved October 27, 2021.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Silverman, Al (2008). The Time of Their Lives: The Golden Age of Great American Book Publishers, Their Editors, and Authors. Truman Talley. ISBN 978-0312-35003-1.
  4. ^ Macmillan. "About Macmillan". us.macmillan.com. Archived from the original on July 26, 2022. Retrieved June 19, 2016.
  5. ^ "Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Inc. records". archives.nypl.org. Archived from the original on August 16, 2018. Retrieved August 16, 2018.
  6. ^ "Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Young". www.isfdb.org. Archived from the original on August 16, 2018. Retrieved August 16, 2018.
  7. ^ "New England, 1620; MAYFLOWER BOY. By Stanley Young. Illustrated by Edward Shenton. 272 pp. New York: Farrar & Rinehart. $2". The New York Times. October 8, 1944. Archived from the original on August 16, 2018. Retrieved August 16, 2018.
  8. ^ Wallace, Tom (August 12, 2013). "Farrar, Straus & Giroux: publishing's 'perfect storm'". bookbrunch.co.uk. Archived from the original on August 16, 2018. Retrieved August 16, 2018.
  9. ^ "Stanley Young". www.williamsamericanart.com. Archived from the original on August 16, 2018. Retrieved August 16, 2018.
  10. ^ Kachka, Boris (August 12, 2014). Hothouse: The Art of Survival and the Survival of Art at America's Most Celebrated Publishing House, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9781451691917. Archived from the original on April 9, 2022. Retrieved August 16, 2018 – via Google Books.
  11. ^ "2 BOOK PUBLISHERS MERGE; Pellegrini & Cudahy Unite With Farrar, Straus & Young". The New York Times. April 4, 1953. Archived from the original on August 16, 2018. Retrieved August 16, 2018.
  12. ^ "Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck". www.mediadb.eu. Archived from the original on October 28, 2011. Retrieved January 15, 2022.
  13. ^ Landler, Mark (October 14, 2002). "Another German Publisher Mulls Its Wartime Past". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on January 15, 2022. Retrieved January 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.
  14. ^ a b "House of Galassi". publishersweekly.com. Archived from the original on August 16, 2018. Retrieved August 16, 2018.
  15. ^ Harris, Elizabeth A. (October 25, 2021). "2 FSG Promotes Mitzi Angel to President". The New York Times. Archived from the original on October 26, 2021. Retrieved October 27, 2021.
  16. ^ Farrington, Joshua. "Faber ends FSG partnership". The Bookseller. Archived from the original on August 6, 2020. Retrieved July 19, 2015.
  17. ^ "History of Farrar, Straus and Giroux Inc". www.fundinguniverse.com. Archived from the original on August 16, 2018. Retrieved August 16, 2018.
  18. ^ "Library of Congress LCCN Permalink n96043234". lccn.loc.gov. Archived from the original on August 16, 2018. Retrieved August 16, 2018.
  19. ^ Lehmann-Haupt, Christopher (May 27, 2004). "Roger W. Straus Jr., Book Publisher From the Age of the Independents, Dies at 87". The New York Times. Archived from the original on August 16, 2018. Retrieved August 16, 2018.
  20. ^ "Library of Congress LCCN Permalink n96043241". lccn.loc.gov. Archived from the original on August 16, 2018. Retrieved August 16, 2018.
  21. ^ "Letterhead, Farrar, Straus & Cudahy, Inc., New York, NY, 1958". Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Archived from the original on August 16, 2018. Retrieved August 16, 2018.
  22. ^ "Library of Congress LCCN Permalink no2015030156". lccn.loc.gov. Archived from the original on August 16, 2018. Retrieved August 16, 2018.
  23. ^ "Library of Congress LCCN Permalink nr96042512". lccn.loc.gov. Archived from the original on August 16, 2018. Retrieved August 16, 2018.
  24. ^ "Anatomy of a Publisher". newyorker.com. August 5, 2013. Archived from the original on August 16, 2018. Retrieved August 16, 2018.
  25. ^ a b "Library of Congress LCCN Permalink n96043257". lccn.loc.gov. Archived from the original on August 16, 2018. Retrieved August 16, 2018.
  26. ^ "Guide to the Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Inc. Records" (PDF). Manuscripts and Archives Division, New York Public Library. Archived (PDF) from the original on July 7, 2017. Retrieved August 16, 2018.
  27. ^ Weinman, Sarah (May 9, 2016). "McDonald Named Publisher of New FSG Imprint, and More". lunch.publishersmarketplace.com. Archived from the original on August 16, 2018. Retrieved July 4, 2017.
  28. ^ "People Round-Up, Mid-May 2016". Publishing Trends. May 17, 2016. Archived from the original on June 15, 2017. Retrieved July 4, 2017.
  29. ^ "HILL AND WANG". Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Archived from the original on January 18, 2008. Retrieved January 9, 2008.
  30. ^ "Library of Congress LCCN Permalink no2006079532". lccn.loc.gov. Archived from the original on August 16, 2018. Retrieved August 16, 2018.
  31. ^ Zeitchik, Steven (June 14, 2004). "Crichton gets imprint at FSG". Publishers Weekly. Archived from the original on August 16, 2018. Retrieved February 20, 2014.
  32. ^ "Crichton to Leave FSG at End of Year". Publishers Weekly. Archived from the original on August 16, 2018. Retrieved August 16, 2018.
  33. ^ Habash, Gabe (May 18, 2012). "FSG, 'Scientific American' Roll Out New Imprint". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved July 31, 2022.
  34. ^ "News Shorts".
  35. ^ "Melanie Kroupa to Join Marshall Cavendish".
  36. ^ "FSG Originals x Logic". Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 2023. Retrieved July 24, 2023.
  37. ^ Norman Angell, After All: The Autobiography of Norman Angell (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1951; rpt. Farrar, Straus and Young, 1952).
  38. ^ Elie Wiesel, Night (Hill & Wang, 1958; rpt. 2006).
  39. ^ Nelson Mandela, Dare Not Linger (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2017).
  40. ^ "Giving An 'F': Rewriting The History Of FSG". theawl.com. Archived from the original on August 16, 2018. Retrieved August 16, 2018.

Further reading

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