Richard Seaver (1926–2009)

Posthumously edited by his wife, Jeanette, Richard Seaver’s memoir is an honest, self-effacing and fascinating story of his decades in publishing and translating, from Paris to New York. He tells of discovering the writing of Samuel Beckett, falling love with it, and getting it in print. Episodes with Genet, Ionesco, George Orwell, Brendan Behan and Jean-Paul Sartre are described first hand.

Seaver writes concisely and clearly, with touches of beauty. On his first view of France, approaching from sea: “Gentle hills of green rose up to touch the lowering clouds, inviting undulations were speckled with black-and-white dots that, as we drew nearer, became herds of cattle.”

The first half of the book “Paris, 1950s” is the most vibrant. To the young American studying at the Sorbonne the city seemed “the center of the universe.” The New York portion, when Seaver was an editor at Grove Press, tells a different story of publishing, as the radical Grove becomes larger and more mainstream. A wonderful story of bringing new writers to the public and fighting censorship.… (mere)