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| Jason Epstein | |
Jason Epstein, the innovative publisher and entrepreneur, died on February 4. He was 93.
While some readers may not be familiar with Jason Epstein, every reader is familiar with at least some of the accomplishments of his long, busy career. He was responsible for some of the most striking innovations in publishing, many of which have had lasting effect.
For several decades he was editorial director at Random House, where he acquired books by and edited some of the most important writers in the second half of the 20th century. In 1963, he co-founded the New York Review of Books. While an editor at Doubleday, he created Anchor Books, the first major trade paperback imprint in the U.S. In the 1980s, he founded the Library of America, which has published many hundreds of American works in beautiful, lasting, well-edited editions. Later he founded the Reader's Catalog, a printed, mail-order precursor to online retailing. In more recent years, he founded On Demand Books, whose Espresso Book Machine was adopted by many bookstores and libraries.
He was also an author: his books included The Great Conspiracy Trial (1970), a defense of the Chicago Seven, East Hampton: A History and Guide (1975), written with Elizabeth Barlow, Book Business: Publishing Past, Present, and Future (2001) and Eating: A Memoir (2009).