Publishing Giant Jason Epstein Inaugurates Lecture Series for the Center for Scholars and Writers at The New York Public Library

This fall, Jason Epstein, co-founder of The New York Review of Books and former Vice President and Editorial Director of Random House, discusses his distinguished career and the future of the publishing industry in a three-part series at The New York Public Library. This is the first in an annual lecture series featuring talks by prominent persons in the arts, humanities, and social sciences presented by the Library's Center for Scholars and Writers and W. W. Norton & Company. W. W. Norton & Company will later publish books based on the lectures.

In his fifty years as a book publisher, Jason Epstein has edited, among many others, E. L. Doctorow, Norman Mailer, Vladimir Nabokov, W. H. Auden, Gore Vidal, Philip Roth, Edmund Wilson, V. S. Pritchett, Jane Jacobs, Elaine Pagels, Barbara Goldsmith, Jean Strouse, David Remnick, Elizabeth Hardwick, and Sister Helen Prejean. He is best known, however, as an innovator. In 1953, he created Anchor Books, which spurred the so-called quality paperback revolution. Ten years later, he co-founded The New York Review of Books. Inspired by Edmund Wilson and with the help of McGeorge Bundy, he founded the Library of America. In 1989, he created the Reader's Catalog, the precursor of online bookselling. He retired in 1998 after serving for many years as Vice-President and Editorial Director of Random House.

• Thursday, October 7, 6 p.m.:  "The Publishing Business: Past"

• Thursday, October 14, 6 p.m.: "The Publishing Business: Present"

• Thursday, October 21, 6 p.m.: "The Publishing Business: Future"

The programs are held in the Celeste Bartos Forum of the Humanities and Social Sciences Library, Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street. Tickets are $7 per lecture for Friends of the Library (donors of $40 or more), $10 for the general public. Tickets may be purchased at the Library Shops in the Humanities and Social Sciences Library and the Mid-Manhattan Library, at Fifth Avenue and 40th Street. For information, call 212.930.0855, between 1:30 and 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday.

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thoerenz: pro: 09-10-99