Arthur J. Rosenthal

Arthur J. Rosenthal took office at Harvard University Press "on October 1, 1972. Rosenthal, founder and publisher of Basic Books, took up Dumas Malone's notion of "scholarship plus" by making Harvard's list more appealing to a wider general readership beyond the academy, and establishing a trend that many other university presses were to follow some years later. Assisted by associate director for operations Brian Murphy he reduced and reorganized staff, quickly improving the financial picture. He also launched new lists in science and psychology, and professionalized the marketing strategies of the Press. Among the stellar titles published during his tenure are Bernard Bailyn's 1975 National Book Award winner, The Ordeal of Thomas Hutchinson; E.O. Wilson's On Human Nature (1978), which received the Pulitzer Prize (as did Wilson's 1990 The Ants, co-authored with Bert Hölldobler); Alfred Chandler's The Visible Hand, which received both the Pulitzer and Bancroft Prizes in 1978; Carol Gilligan's In a Different Voice (1982), which has sold over 500,000 copies; Thomas K. McCraw's Pulitzer winner, Prophets of Regulation (1984); and Jane Goodall's The Chimpanzees of Gombe (1986). Arthur Rosenthal retired from Harvard University Press in 1990, and was succeeded by William P. Sisler, formerly vice president and executive editor for humanities and social sciences at Oxford University Press (USA)."

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