John Calder
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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John Calder is a Canadian and Scottish publisher who founded Calder Publishing in 1949. He later formed Calder and Boyars with Marion Boyars.
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Biography
Calder was friends with Samuel Beckett during his life time, and is responsible for initially publishing 85% of the Beckett available today. During the 1950s, he published the translated work of Chekhov, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Goethe and Zola, among others, and was the first publisher to make William S. Burroughs available in the United Kingdom. He was also responsible for a Writer's festival and conference in Edinburgh in the 1950s, uniting writers from all over the world. His company continues to publish Howard Barker, Tim Waterstone, and other figures of literature both past and present. In 2002, John Calder opened the Calder Bookshop in London. In 2006, Lou MacLoughlan and Louise Milne produced the documentary John Calder: A Life in Publishing commemorating his life. [1] [Apr 2007]
Publisher of subversion
John Calder was the publisher of subversion of post-war Britain. He published Arrabal, Burroughs, Durgnat, Duras, Jodorowsky, Moorcock, Queneau, Pieyre de Mandiargues and Robbe-Grillet. As such, his publishing house is very much the British equivalent to American Grove Press, French Éditions Le Terrain Vague and Germany's März-Verlag. [Jan 2007]
Obscenity trials
Calder began to publish the previously banned work of two such writers: Henry Miller and William Burroughs. Controversy also surrounded the publication of Alexander Trocchi's Cain's Book, which was a success in spite of a minor obscenity trial in Sheffield. Hubert Selby's Last Exit to Brooklyn, although well reviewed, had a more serious case brought against it; first in a private prosecution by a Tory MP; then at the Old Bailey. John Mortimer led a successful appeal and the company was vindicated after lost in both lower courts. --http://www.calderpublications.com/aboutus.html
