End of an Era

Roger Straus Jr., 87; Founded Preeminent Publishing House (washingtonpost.com)

"Many people have accused me of being an elitist," Mr. Straus once said. "I'm guilty. I am an elitist. I like good books."

In a sense, it may be easy to become a book publisher when your mother is a Guggenheim. Still, based on the obituary in the Washington Post, it is apparent that Roger Straus stood for an older vision of publishing, in which profits were a way to publish great literature and not merely an end in themselves. His vision of publishing seems increasingly endangered as the world of publishing is absorbed into a handful of giant conglomerates, and almost Orwellian (vide 1984) universe where a few vast behemoths dominate the globe, each nominally at war with the other but all dedicated to the preservation of numbing control and uniformity. On a hopeful note, the Post points out that Farrar, Straus, and Giroux continues to publish books reputed to have literary merit despite having been acquired by large German publisher.