University Press Provides Scholars With Agency To Publish Quality Works for Limited Audiences

Three days after the North Koreans crossed the 38th parallel last June, the Harvard University Press scooped the nation's publishers with the only current book on Korea, George McCune's "Korea Today." Thomas J. Wilson, director of the university Press, admits it was coincidence. But in recent years the Press has encouraged books on world trouble-spots.

Yet this is not the only field that the University Press emphasizes. Any non-fiction work that "will advance learning," regardless of its potential market, has a chance of being published, if the Board of Syndies approves. Nine professors, representing the main branches of learning, sit on the Board of Syndies for terms of four years.

Before a manuscript reaches these Syndies for approval, it is first read by one or more staff members of the Press. Then at least one and maybe two opinions are obtained from scholars on the particular subject. Manuscripts that receive favorable opinions as to style and authority of content are given to the Syndics for their acceptance.

Present Syndics

The present Syndics from the College are John O. Brew, director of Peabody Museum, Mason Hammond '25, professor of Greek and Latin, Oscar Handlin, professor of American History, Howard Mumford Jones, professor of English, Paul C. Mangelsderf, professor of Botany, Donald H. Menzel, professor of Astronomy, and Samuel A. Stouffer, professor of Sociology.

The Law School is represented by Mark D. Hoe '28, professor of Law, and the Medical School by A. Baird Hastings, Hamilton Kuhn Professor of Clinical Biology.

The Syndics may accept a book that is well-written and authoritative, but the Board of Directors must then pass on its financial soundness.

The Board of Directors is composed of persons with business experience in or out of the University. It is presided over by Administrative vice-President Reynolds. Three other men are appointed for year terms and are usually reappointed annually.

It is their job to supervise the overall financial policy of the Press. Although commercial publishing houses are in business to make a profit, the Press is a service organizations. The directors must only make sure it breaks even.

To do this, a close check is kept on the 90 or so books that are published annually. The Syndics can usually judge whether a book will sell enough copies to pay for itself. And they pass this opinion on to the Board of Directors.

If it is felt that a book will not have a wide audience appeal, assistance must come from sources other than the Press funds. Usually, these subsidies are given by the author, the department concerned, or an interested patron.

Commercial publishers have virtually withdrawn from putting out books that do not promise a sale of 10,000 copies or more. But the Press will publish worthwhile manuscripts from its own funds that will sell only 3,500 copies but still break even.

Specialized Audience

Profits from bestsellers help to finance deserving books for a highly specialized reader. Poetry books, such as Theodore Spencer's "An Acre in the Seed," do well to sell 1000 copies. Technical hooks that are expensive to produce, as "Early New England Potters and Their Wares" by Lura Woodside Watkins, must have a high retail price. Some of them are subsidized as well.

Not all the Press's books are headaches from the financial angle. "The Report on General Education in a Free Society" has already soared to over 40,000 sales and is still going strong. President Conant's "Education in a Divided World" has passed the 15,000 mark, and Sigfried Giedion's "Space, Time, and Architecture," has gone over 20,000 copies.

The Press does not always guess right about sales appeal. A former Wellesley instructor submitted a biographical manuscript to which she had devoted 20 years. Four big commercial publishers had already turned it down. The Press accepted it but expected few sales.

The book, Any Kelly's "Eleanor of Acquitaine," has been on the best-sellers list of the New York Times and New York Herald Tribune Sunday book sections for several months.

Although most of the more than 2,000 books the Press has published since its beginning were written by faculty members. Harvard professors are under no obligation to submit their works to the Press.

51 on Staff

A number of the good books by the faculty do go to outside publishers. The Press dooms this only natural but with its extensive facilities, the Press tries to lure the good books of the faculty. The Press boasts of a 51-person staff of editors, designers, account managers, advertising and promotion personnel, and sales executives.

Printing is bought by the Press from many different houses on the basis of the best offer. The University Printing Office does about one-third of the jobs. But books are even printed abroad where economies and better quality because of language difficulties can be secured.

Right now a Danish company in Copenhagen is handling "Problems in Monopolistic Competition" by Hans Bremes.

Charles Livingston, a Bowdoin professor of French, has written a book in 13th century French called "Le Jongleur Gautier le Leu." He is presently in Macon, France supervising its production for the Press.

Swamped with Manuscripts

Getting manuscripts to publish is really no problem for the Press. Since it is one of only two university presses in Now England, it is swamped by the writings of scholars who have no university press of their own.

As one of the few university presses and financed by state funds and not purely regional in character, the Press is looked to by scholars all over the country whose work has no local significance.

It is not surprising that authors looking for the Press offices often go to the wrong building. The location has changed three times since the Press was formally established in 1913.

The University Printing Office gave birth to the Press in Randall Hall, located on the corner of Divinity Avenue and Kirkland Street.

At first the Press had only editorial responsibilities. Gradually, though, it absorbed the job of distributing its own books from commercial publishers.

C. Chester Lane '04 came from Ginn and Company to guide the Press as its first director. He got the University Press going and then left to serve in the Army in 1919. His present post is business manager of the New York Times.

Weak Finances

The Press was still on weak foundations financially. Harold Murdock, father of Kenneth B. Murdock '16, Higginson Professor of English Literature, was brought in to put the Press on a sound financial basis.

When Murdock died in 1936, Dumss Malone, editor of the "Dictionary of American Biography," took over as director. The Press began to overflow into 38 Quincy Street, present site of the Russian Research Center. Only the top five executives established offices there; shipping, accounting, and some editing were still done from Randall Hall.

Malone left to become professor of American History at Columbia in 1943. A prominent Boston publisher, Roger L. Scaife '97, was appointed the new director.

The war diminished Scaife's staff at 83 Quincy Street to 20. The volume of business was inversely proportional, for the Chinese and Japanese grammars and dictionaries swelled sales.

A year after Wilson became director in 1947, the Press moved its offices to 44 Francis Avenue, across from the Divinity School where it is today.

The Press did some more expanding and now stores and ships books from the basement of Andover Hall. It also maintains a display room at 22 Dunster Street.

The Press is an important part of the general publishing community. It is important both in volume of business and in the number of titles issued annually. Still more significant, the Press produces titles of quality, value, and influence in a coat-ridden field where commectal publishers often push aside good books for works of a flashier nature and greater sales potential.