
They Published the Perished: NYRB Classics puts masterpieces back in print - wyndham
https://airmail.news/issues/2019-10-12/they-publish-the-perished
======
leoh
If anyone is looking for a novel, "Stoner" (one of the books reissued by NYRB)
was an incredible read. I read most of it in the loft of a private library
deep in the Ventana Wilderness (west of Big Sur). It was hard to put down and
deeply moving. I ended up buying about five copies that I gave away to
friends.

~~~
habosa
When I saw a HN thread about NYRB I thought "oh they reissued that novel I
loved, Stoner". Glad to see I wasn't the only one who was surprised by how
much they enjoyed it.

------
zorked
They published "The Anatomy of Melancholy", which is a insanely long / funny /
wild 17th century tract on (considerably more than just) depression.

------
Jun8
IDEA: Can organizations like YC and other VCs fund such activities? Series
would have a nicely printed version and a pdf version free to read online. All
nicely typeset. Can start with a series on “Forgotten Sci-fi” classics, e.g.
Tiptree’s stories, _A Voyage to Arcturus_ , etc.

How much would such a thing cost?

~~~
dmix
From the article:

> It would be difficult to think of a less commercially minded venture in the
> early 21st century.

This would be more of a wealthy guy side business instead of a VC backed
growth business...

~~~
Jun8
Absolutely! I didn’t mean backing as in backing a business but in a
philanthropic sense. If one get a number of rich tech people or VC or
incubator to shell in $100k, one can easily “raise” $2-3M for the endeavor.

And they can use it for PR, as in “were supporting Arts, too.” I think this
would come handy in current climate that’s getting more and more hostile to
tech companies.

~~~
harshreality
Voyage to Arcturus and most if not all of Alice Sheldon's (aka Tiptree's)
stories look like they're in print, and published as ebooks (and on pirate
sites if they're not stocked by your local library). Open Road and Gollancz
have been publishing a bunch of older science fiction like that.

Buying out copyright for books that a publisher is selling would be much more
expensive. A few million dollars wouldn't go very far if every copyright
holder wanted, for instance, a modest $5k per book to buy out their
copyrights. And why would they sell their copyright for pennies, particularly
when they already bought out the copyright from the original publisher? They
put in all the effort to re-publish the book, and marginal and up-front costs
now are zero (ebooks) or low (print on demand).

It's not obvious that making obscure books available for free would be doing
them any favors. With the avenues of libraries and piracy available, having a
non-zero price should help boost the perceived value of the books.

------
dmix
I don't know what Airmail.news is but I like it.

~~~
lordgrenville
It's run by the former editor of Vanity Fair. Supposed to be a light-hearted
glossy magazine about politics/society/entertainment, except in an email
newsletter.

