Grove Press

Grove Press is an American publishing imprint that was founded in 1951. Imprints include: Black Cat, Evergreen, Venus Library, and Zebra. Barney Rosset purchased the company in 1951 and turned it into an alternative book press in the United States. He partnered with Richard Seaver to bring French literature to the United States. The Atlantic Monthly Press, under the aegis of its publisher, Morgan Entrekin, merged with Grove Press in 1991. Grove is now an imprint of the publisher Grove/Atlantic, Inc. Grove published Evergreen Review, a literary magazine whose March–April 1960 edition includes work by Albert Camus, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Bertolt Brecht, and LeRoi Jones, as well as Edward Albee's first play, The Zoo Story. Grove is also the exclusive United States publisher of the unabridged complete works of the Marquis de Sade.wiki

In 1990 The New York Times reported that:


 * "Barney Rosset, who founded Grove Press in 1951 but was ousted after it was sold five years ago, is attempting to buy back the house with the help of four independent publishers.


 * "The group has already arranged for the distribution of Grove books and is now talking to bankers and potential investors, trying to help Mr. Rosset raise the $10 million he said was being asked for the company.


 * "Ann Getty, the wife of Gordon Getty, the oil millionaire, and Lord Weidenfeld, the publisher of Weidenfeld & Nicolsen, the British publisher, bought Grove Press in 1985 for $2 million. Almost two weeks ago, it was learned that they intended to sell the debt-plagued company, which they had renamed Grove Weidenfeld...


 * "Random House Inc., which is owned by S. I. Newhouse's family-owned Advance Publications Inc., is also considering buying Grove Weidenfeld. Until two weeks ago, Fred Jordan, who was recently named to replace Andre Schiffrin at Pantheon Books, was editor in chief at Grove, where he had worked for more than 20 years...


 * "The other principles in Mr. Rosset's group are Kent Carroll and Herman Graf, the co-owners of Carroll & Graf; Neil Ortenberg, the publisher of Thunder's Mouth Press; Glenn Young, the president of Applause Theatre Book Publishers, and Dan Simon, Mr. Oakes's partner. All four houses publish many literary titles, and Mr. Oakes and Mr. Carroll were editors at Grove Press under Mr. Rosset.


 * "It would serve a very useful purpose if we can get this back, especially in view of the quarreling about cutting back on Pantheon's list, said the 67-year-old Mr. Rosset, who is considered a godfather of avante-garde literature. If he is successful, he said, he envisions Grove as a hub through which the other four independent houses would produce and distribute their books."

History

 * Loren Glass, Counterculture Colophon: Grove Press, the Evergreen Review, and the Incorporation of the Avant-Garde (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2013).

Related Sourcewatch

 * Richard Cummings
 * Maurice Zeitlin
 * Daniel Pinchbeck