Modern Library

The Modern Library, a current division of Random House publishers, was founded in 1917 by Albert Boni and Horace Liveright. It was bought in 1925 by Bennett Cerf. Random House began in 1927 as a subsidiary of the Modern Library, but eventually became the parent company.

Recent history

The Modern Library used to publish only hardbound books. From 1955 to 1960 they published a quality numbered paperback series; then in the 1980's they began to release Modern Library College Editions, a forerunner of their current series of paperback classics. Their homepage says:

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:In 1992, on the occasion of the Modern Library's seventy-fifth anniversary, Random House embarked on an ambitious project to refurbish the series. We revived the torchbearer emblem that Cerf and Klopfer commissioned in 1925 from Lucian Bernhard. The Promethean bearer of enlightenment (known informally around the old Modern Library offices as the "dame running away from Bennett Cerf") was redesigned several times over the years, most notably by Rockwell Kent.

Related Topics:
Lucian Bernhard - Rockwell Kent

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:Today's Modern Library proudly displays the Bernhard colophon and endpapers, but everything else is new - we've designed new jackets and created new bindings; worn out type has been reset; out-of-date introductions have been replaced, translations scrutinized, titles added, and a line of Modern Library paperbacks has been launched, including Science, Food, Exploration, The Movies, Humor and Wit, and War. A Board of prominent thinkers advises us on selections, and our readers are participating as never before in the workings of the Modern Library via this website's Reading Guide Center and Suggest a Title link and 100 Best polls for the best novels and nonfiction of the 20th century. http://www.randomhouse.com/modernlibrary/about/

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In September 2000 they launched a newly designed Paperback Classics series. Six new titles are published in the series on the second Tuesday of each month.

Related Topics:
September - 2000 - Tuesday

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