Rick Simonson

Atlas for a Difficult World

An item in book trade news a few weeks ago was word that Atlas & Co., the independent imprint James Atlas and others have undertaken, is delaying publication of its planned spring 2009 list until the fall. In statements made, the current, difficult climate was cited, but there also were words to the effect that all should be well, that the books intended will be published in due time.

This reader does hope that it is only delay. There are a number of fairly new presses out doing good and vital work these, days, often more ably and nimbly than some of the larger houses. Atlas & Co., with eight books launched before this fall, is very much among the most interesting and intriguing. Growing out of the kinds of books and series Atlas had done at Norton ('Great Discoveries' and 'Enterprise') and HrperCollins ('Eminent Lives'), the sixteen books published or catalogued by the Atlas & Co. imprint are a nice mix of (mostly) internationally-focused small-scale biographies, nonfiction works in translation, travelogues and present-day narratives.

There have been handsome, boxed-set editions of literary travel classics for Italy and France; biographies of Kafka, Rimbaud, and Madame de Stael by Louis Begley, Edmund White, and Francine du Plessix Gray, respectively; current portraits of Bosnia, Russia, the U.S. (by writers from elsewhere), and Kazakhstan.

One particular favorite - which occasioned a reading here in Seattle earlier this year - was Beijing journalist Lijia Zhang's lively memoir, "Socialism is Great!" A Worker's Memoir of the New China.

Another, more recent, and very much going into readers' hands here is Venezuelan author (and national library director) Fernando Baez's bracing, timely A Universal History of the Destruction of Books: From Ancient Sumer to Modern Iraq. First published in 2004, Atlas brought it out here this year, in a translation by Alfred MacAdam.

A common motif with almost all of these titles is their scale, the readerly comfort they offer by being handbook-sized. They have a nice, inviting look  to them.

One can imagine some of the challenges faced in launching such an enterprise in the times these are, even before the most recent unraveling. Distributed well by Norton, the Atlas list has to take its time (and the time) to sell through, earn itself some income. The first year and more of any new distribution arrangement is especially challenging for cash flow, as proceeds from orders have to generally be held out against potential returns.

Here's hoping that those of us in positions to do so can help Atlas & Co.'s books do just that - sell through - so that when payoff time comes, it isn't  reduced by returns. May the books then continue, list by list.

'Atlas for a Difficult World' tips its acknowledging hat to Adrienne Rich's 1991 poetry collection, An Atlas of the Difficult World.

Posted by Rick Simonson on October 20, 2008 | Comments (1)