Encounter Books
Encyclopedia
Encounter Books is an American conservative
book publisher. It is an activity of Encounter for Culture and Education, Inc. Encounter Books draws its name from Encounter (magazine)
, the now defunct literary magazine founded by Irving Kristol
and Stephen Spender
.
Encounter Books publishes serious non-fiction books, with a scholarly leaning, in the areas of history, religion, biography, education, public policy, current affairs, social sciences, and politics.
Encounter Books was founded in 1997 in San Francisco, by Peter Collier
. Collier retired in late-2005, and Encounter Books was taken over by the commentator Roger Kimball
, who is also co-editor and publisher of The New Criterion
. Kimball relocated Encounter Books to New York City in early 2006.
Encounter Books has published many well-known writers, including Brian C. Anderson
, Ward Connerly
, Theodore Dalrymple, John Fund
, Victor Davis Hanson
, Peter Hitchens
, David Horowitz, Leon Kass
, William Kristol
, Yuval Levin
, Andrew C. McCarthy
, Melanie Phillips
, David Pryce-Jones
, Jean-François Revel
, Thomas Sowell
, David Stove
, and Keith Windschuttle
.
Encounter Books is distributed by the Perseus Books Group
.
Best Seller List, including Black Rednecks and White Liberals
by Thomas Sowell
, Climate Confusion by Roy W. Spencer, Willful Blindness
by Andrew C. McCarthy
and, most recently The Grand Jihad, also by McCarthy.
and Thomas Paine's Common Sense
, called Encounter Broadsides. The series publishes well-known commentators on topical political issues from health care and immigration to Guantanamo Bay. Published Broadside authors include John R. Bolton
, Victor Davis Hanson
, John Fund
, Michael Ledeen
, Andrew C. McCarthy
, Betsey McCaughey, Stephen Moore
, and Michael B. Mukasey
.
Publishers Weekly
reported that the series would be entirely "crashed", or produced and marketed on an aggressive turnaround schedule. Publisher Roger Kimball said of the series:
. At the time publisher Roger Kimball wrote:
The New York Times Book Review
has not reviewed an Encounter title since the announcement, though Encounter titles do receive attention in the editorial and news pages of The New York Times
.
American conservatism
Conservatism in the United States has played an important role in American politics since the 1950s. Historian Gregory Schneider identifies several constants in American conservatism: respect for tradition, support of republicanism, preservation of "the rule of law and the Christian religion", and...
book publisher. It is an activity of Encounter for Culture and Education, Inc. Encounter Books draws its name from Encounter (magazine)
Encounter (magazine)
Encounter was a literary magazine, founded in 1953 by poet Stephen Spender and early neoconservative author Irving Kristol. The magazine ceased publication in 1991...
, the now defunct literary magazine founded by Irving Kristol
Irving Kristol
Irving Kristol was an American columnist, journalist, and writer who was dubbed the "godfather of neoconservatism"...
and Stephen Spender
Stephen Spender
Sir Stephen Harold Spender CBE was an English poet, novelist and essayist who concentrated on themes of social injustice and the class struggle in his work...
.
Encounter Books publishes serious non-fiction books, with a scholarly leaning, in the areas of history, religion, biography, education, public policy, current affairs, social sciences, and politics.
Encounter Books was founded in 1997 in San Francisco, by Peter Collier
Peter Collier (political author)
Peter Collier is a writer, and publisher. He was the founding publisher of Encounter Books in California and held that position from 1998 until he resigned in 2005, when it moved from San Francisco to New York City, and Collier was replaced as publisher by Roger Kimball. He remains a consultant...
. Collier retired in late-2005, and Encounter Books was taken over by the commentator Roger Kimball
Roger Kimball
Roger Kimball is a conservative U.S. art critic and social commentator. He was educated at Cheverus High School, a Jesuit institution in South Portland, Maine, and then at Bennington College, where he took a BA in philosophy and classical Greek, and Yale University...
, who is also co-editor and publisher of The New Criterion
The New Criterion
The New Criterion is a New York-based monthly literary magazine and journal of artistic and cultural criticism, edited by Hilton Kramer and Roger Kimball. It has sections for criticism of poetry, theater, art, music, the media, and books...
. Kimball relocated Encounter Books to New York City in early 2006.
Encounter Books has published many well-known writers, including Brian C. Anderson
Brian C. Anderson
Brian C. Anderson is the editor of City Journal, a quarterly magazine, published by the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research.-Background:Anderson received his BA and MA from Boston College...
, Ward Connerly
Ward Connerly
Wardell Anthony "Ward" Connerly is an American political activist, businessman, and former University of California Regent . He is also the founder and the chairman of the American Civil Rights Institute, a national non-profit organization in opposition to racial and gender preferences...
, Theodore Dalrymple, John Fund
John Fund
John H. Fund is an American political journalist and conservative columnist. Currently a senior editor of The American Spectator,...
, Victor Davis Hanson
Victor Davis Hanson
Victor Davis Hanson is an American military historian, columnist, political essayist and former classics professor, notable as a scholar of ancient warfare. He has been a commentator on modern warfare and contemporary politics for National Review and other media outlets...
, Peter Hitchens
Peter Hitchens
Peter Jonathan Hitchens is an award-winning British columnist and author, noted for his traditionalist conservative stance. He has published five books, including The Abolition of Britain, A Brief History of Crime, The Broken Compass and most recently The Rage Against God. Hitchens writes for...
, David Horowitz, Leon Kass
Leon Kass
Leon Richard Kass is an American physician, scientist, educator, and public intellectual, best known as proponent of liberal education via the "Great Books," as an opponent of human cloning and euthanasia, as a critic of certain areas of technological progress and embryo research, and for his...
, William Kristol
William Kristol
William Kristol is an American neoconservative political analyst and commentator. He is the founder and editor of the political magazine The Weekly Standard and a regular commentator on the Fox News Channel....
, Yuval Levin
Yuval Levin
Yuval Levin is an American political analyst, academic and journalist who is the founding Editor of National Affairs. Levin is also a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a conservative think tank in Washington, D.C. In 2005 and 2006, he was a member of the White House domestic policy...
, Andrew C. McCarthy
Andrew C. McCarthy
Andrew C. McCarthy III is a former Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. A Republican, he is most notable for leading the 1995 terrorism prosecution against Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman and eleven others. The defendants were convicted of the 1993 World Trade Center...
, Melanie Phillips
Melanie Phillips
Melanie Phillips is a British journalist and author. She began her career on the left of the political spectrum, writing for such publications as The Guardian and New Statesman. In the 1990s she moved to the right, and she now writes for the Daily Mail newspaper, covering political and social...
, David Pryce-Jones
David Pryce-Jones
David Eugene Henry Pryce-Jones FRSL is a conservative British author and commentator.- Career :He was educated at Eton and read History at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he studied under A.J.P...
, Jean-François Revel
Jean-François Revel
Jean-François Revel was a French politician, journalist, author, prolific philosopher and member of the Académie française from June 1998...
, Thomas Sowell
Thomas Sowell
Thomas Sowell is an American economist, social theorist, political philosopher, and author. A National Humanities Medal winner, he advocates laissez-faire economics and writes from a libertarian perspective...
, David Stove
David Stove
David Charles Stove , was an Australian philosopher of science.His work in philosophy of science included detailed criticisms of David Hume's inductive skepticism, as well as what he regarded as the irrationalism of his disciplinary contemporaries Karl Popper, Thomas Kuhn, Imre Lakatos, and Paul...
, and Keith Windschuttle
Keith Windschuttle
Keith Windschuttle is an Australian writer, historian, and ABC board member, who has authored several books from the 1970s onwards. These include Unemployment, , which analysed the economic causes and social consequences of unemployment in Australia and advocated a socialist response; The Media: a...
.
Encounter Books is distributed by the Perseus Books Group
Perseus Books Group
Perseus Books Group is an American publishing company founded in 1996 by investor Frank Pearl. It was named Publisher of the Year in 2007 by Publishers Weekly magazine for its role in taking on publishers formerly distributed by Publishers Group West and acquiring Avalon Publishing Group.In January...
.
The New York Times Bestsellers
Encounter Books has seen several of its titles appear on The New York TimesThe New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
Best Seller List, including Black Rednecks and White Liberals
Black Rednecks and White Liberals
Black Rednecks and White Liberals is a collection of six essays by Thomas Sowell. The collection, published in 2005, explores various aspects of race and culture, both in the United States and abroad.-Black Rednecks and White Liberals:...
by Thomas Sowell
Thomas Sowell
Thomas Sowell is an American economist, social theorist, political philosopher, and author. A National Humanities Medal winner, he advocates laissez-faire economics and writes from a libertarian perspective...
, Climate Confusion by Roy W. Spencer, Willful Blindness
Willful blindness
Willful blindness is a term used in law to when an individual seeks to avoid civil or criminal liability for a wrongful act by intentionally putting himself in a position where he will be unaware of facts which would render him liable.For example, in a number of cases,...
by Andrew C. McCarthy
Andrew C. McCarthy
Andrew C. McCarthy III is a former Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. A Republican, he is most notable for leading the 1995 terrorism prosecution against Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman and eleven others. The defendants were convicted of the 1993 World Trade Center...
and, most recently The Grand Jihad, also by McCarthy.
Encounter Broadsides
In October 2009, Encounter launched a series of short polemical booklets in the spirit of the Federalist PapersFederalist Papers
The Federalist Papers are a series of 85 articles or essays promoting the ratification of the United States Constitution. Seventy-seven of the essays were published serially in The Independent Journal and The New York Packet between October 1787 and August 1788...
and Thomas Paine's Common Sense
Common sense
Common sense is defined by Merriam-Webster as, "sound and prudent judgment based on a simple perception of the situation or facts." Thus, "common sense" equates to the knowledge and experience which most people already have, or which the person using the term believes that they do or should have...
, called Encounter Broadsides. The series publishes well-known commentators on topical political issues from health care and immigration to Guantanamo Bay. Published Broadside authors include John R. Bolton
John R. Bolton
John Robert Bolton is an American lawyer and diplomat who has served in several Republican presidential administrations. He served as the U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations from August 2005 until December 2006 on a recess appointment...
, Victor Davis Hanson
Victor Davis Hanson
Victor Davis Hanson is an American military historian, columnist, political essayist and former classics professor, notable as a scholar of ancient warfare. He has been a commentator on modern warfare and contemporary politics for National Review and other media outlets...
, John Fund
John Fund
John H. Fund is an American political journalist and conservative columnist. Currently a senior editor of The American Spectator,...
, Michael Ledeen
Michael Ledeen
Michael Arthur Ledeen is an American specialist on foreign policy. His research areas have included state sponsors of terrorism, Iran, the Middle East, Europe , U.S.-China relations, intelligence, and Africa and is a leading neoconservative...
, Andrew C. McCarthy
Andrew C. McCarthy
Andrew C. McCarthy III is a former Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. A Republican, he is most notable for leading the 1995 terrorism prosecution against Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman and eleven others. The defendants were convicted of the 1993 World Trade Center...
, Betsey McCaughey, Stephen Moore
Stephen Moore
Stephen Moore may refer to:* Stephen Moore , Irish politician*Stephen Moore * Stephen Moore , English actor* Stephen Campbell Moore , English actor...
, and Michael B. Mukasey
Michael B. Mukasey
Michael Bernard Mukasey is a lawyer and former judge who served as the 81st Attorney General of the United States. Mukasey, an American lawyer, was appointed following the resignation of Alberto Gonzales. Mukasey also served for 18 years as a judge of the United States District Court for the...
.
Publishers Weekly
Publishers Weekly
Publishers Weekly, aka PW, is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers and literary agents...
reported that the series would be entirely "crashed", or produced and marketed on an aggressive turnaround schedule. Publisher Roger Kimball said of the series:
"[T]he imprint will serve as “a new--or rather, a revival of an old--genre that is supple enough to respond quickly to unfolding events and yet authoritative enough to have an important effect on the debate over policy.”
The New York Times Book Review
In June 2009, Encounter generated some controversy with the announcement that it was no longer sending its books to The New York Times Book ReviewThe New York Times Book Review
The New York Times Book Review is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to The New York Times in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely read book review publications in the industry. The offices are located near Times Square in New York...
. At the time publisher Roger Kimball wrote:
"Once upon a time, and not that long ago, it meant something if your book was reviewed in The New York Times Book Review. A Times review imparted a vital existential certification as well as a commercial boost. Is that still the case? Less and less, I believe. The Times in general has lost influence as the paper has receded into parochial, left-liberal boosterism and politically correct reportage. And where its news and comment have become increasingly politicized, its cultural coverage has become increasingly superficial and increasingly captive of establishment, i.e., left-liberal, pieties and “lifestyle” radicalism.
Sure, a positive review in the Times still helps sell books. But it’s quite clear that books from Encounter won’t be getting those reviews, so it is pointless for us to send copies of our books to the Times—worse than pointless, because by so doing we help to perpetuate the charade that the Book Review is anything like even-handed in its treatment of conservative books. There is also this fact: the real impetus in selling books has decisively shifted away from legacy outlets like The New York Times towards the pluralistic universe of talk radio and the “blogosphere.” That is why Encounter can see its books on the Times’s bestseller list without ever making it into the paper’s review columns."
The New York Times Book Review
The New York Times Book Review
The New York Times Book Review is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to The New York Times in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely read book review publications in the industry. The offices are located near Times Square in New York...
has not reviewed an Encounter title since the announcement, though Encounter titles do receive attention in the editorial and news pages of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
.