In a move designed to restore the company's focus to its original mission as a nonfiction publisher, Prometheus Books has sold its genre fiction imprints--Seventh Street Books and Pyr--to Start Publishing.
The late Paul Kurtz founded the nonfiction press in 1969 to publish "provocative, progressive and independent work that would light the way to reason and intelligence like Prometheus, the legendary Greek god who gave fire to humans," the company noted. Prometheus Books launched Pyr in 2005 to build on its success in popular science with science fiction and fantasy, and in 2011 developed the crime fiction imprint Seventh Street Books to complement its true crime list.
"In making this decision, it was of utmost importance to us that our valued authors and editorial directors find a good home," said Prometheus Books publisher Jonathan Kurtz. "We are beyond proud of what we accomplished with our forays into genre fiction. But returning to our nonfiction identity, as we celebrate our golden anniversary, will allow us to more fully engage with the diverse readers in our core categories and maximize the potential of our extensive back catalogue."
He added: "With our world currently so desperately in need of clear-headedness and thoughtful discourse, Prometheus's commitment to bringing rational intelligence, objective analysis, and scientific reasoning through intelligent nonfiction is again of urgent value."
Start Publishing president Jarred Weisfeld commented: "We are very excited to be adding such a prestigious list of award-winning authors and titles to the Start Publishing family. We look forward to continuing the legacy of these imprints that the Prometheus team established."