Descriere
First published to celebrate Faber's 90th anniversary, this is the story of one of the world's greatest publishing houses - a delight for all readers who are curious about the business of writing.
'A striking drama.'
SUNDAY TIMES
'Never less than fascinating.'
DAILY TELEGRAPH
'This book will fascinate anyone with an interest in twentieth-century literature . . . a treasure trove.'
SCOTSMAN
'The details here do consistently shine.'
NEW YORK TIMES
'Ingeniously compiled . . . charming and quirky'
EVENING STANDARD
Told in its own words, this is the story of one of the world's greatest publishers, capturing the excitement, hopes and fears of the people who published and wrote the books that line our shelves today. Including archive material from T. S. Eliot, Samuel Beckett, Seamus Heaney, P. D. James, Kazuo Ishiguro and Philip Larkin, this is both a vibrant history and a hymn to the role of literature in all our lives.
The creation story of Faber itself is a striking drama . . . What stays in the mind are some brilliant vignettes: Monteith writing to the Travellers' Club secretary to apologise for his lunch guest Thom Gunn's fringed leather jacket and cowboy boots ("Mr Gunn has for the last few years lived in California"); CP Snow's insufferable conceit ("Impress on your people that I am unusually readable for a serious novelist, and that quite simple people find it so"); and Geoffrey Faber, fire watching in the 1940s and, from the Faber roof, seeing London ablaze. ― Sunday Times
A quirky history of the firm that has an unrivalled author roster . . . This is not a conventional chronological tale; Faber dips liberally and entertainingly into the company archives, reproduces letters and previously unseen photographs, as well as forays into jacket design and his own memories to paint a vivid picture of a publishing. ― New Statesman
This book is more than self-serving corporate history, and that is largely down to Toby Faber's light touch . . . The result is a kind of epistolary history that has the considerable advantage of letting us hear from the authors in their own voices . . . The most compelling of these voices belongs to TS Eliot . . . Reading Eliot's correspondence with writers, his internal reports and his catalogue copy is never less than fascinating . . . [A] heartening story: how an independent family publisher with high literary standards survived and thrived by catering to a readership that wanted more than disposable fiction. For someone who loves literature, it is a consoling thought. ― Telegraph
[Toby Faber] has managed to piece together the history of this peculiarly British institution in such a way as to lift the lid on some of the more surprising and, occasionally, unedifying goings-on behind the scenes, while at the same time stopping short of doing anything to diminish its mistique. This book will fascinate anyone with an interest in 20th century literature, but as well as being a treasure trove of anecdotes and insights it is also a surprisingly readable history of a remarkable company. ― Scotsman
Fascinating . . . [Toby Faber] deals fairly with the personalities, conflicts, failures and courageous decisions that shaped the firm. His format is fascinating . . . Filled with brilliant cameos, this is for anyone who wonders what publishers actually do all day. ― Irish Times
Alive to the fact that most publishing commemoratives are dull to the point of stupefaction, Toby Faber has taken the oral history route, constructing a narrative out of correspondence and diary entries, with his own interpolations primed to supply context . . . For an official history [Faber & Faber is] agreeably even-handed. ― The Spectator
Ingeniously compiled . . . One of the pleasures of this book is reading the early correspondences with writers who later became famous. . . The very picture of old-school publishing, which, with its lunches and advances and cranky old book-lined offices, is so cheerfully celebrated in this charming and quirky history. ― Evening Standard
Academics have always itched to get into the Faber archive, to get at the letters and memos that record how this 20th-century canon was made. Toby Faber has rights of entry. ― Guardian
The persistence of Faber & Faber, which is now celebrating ninety years as an independent publisher, makes for a remarkable case study ... The Faber story certainly speaks volumes about the mix of passion, shrewdness, and luck that it takes to keep such an operation afloat. ― New Yorker
This fine book tells an intriguing story of how the now eminent publisher emerged between the wars to become one of the most important literary presses in modern history . . . It ends a glimpse into the complex journey of how a book finds its way onto the bookshelves. ― Irish Independent
A rare, triumphant story . . . Anyone with an interest in the inner workings of the literary establishment will have a field day. ― Town & Country
Brimming with humanizing details and unforgettable literary personalities, Faber's compilation will be a delight for literature fans. ― Publisher's Weekly
A richly detailed biography of the distinguished British publishing house ... Geoffrey eventually shaped a list dominated by literature, publishing many of the greats ... Students of modernist literature and publishing history will find this a pleasure. ― Kirkus
Toby Faber's entertaining and informative Faber & Faber is my pick of the year. It chronicles, through internal and external correspondence, the ups and downs of being a publisher, and it's the best publishing history I've ever read and enjoyed. -- Richard Charkin ― Publishing Perspectives
