The Idea Logical Press – förlag

During the nineteen seventies and early eighties, the trade book publishing industry faced financial and philosophical problems of a magnitude unparalleled in its existence. It appeared that without undertaking urgent and far-reaching reforms, the profits of publishing houses would decline to a level that would make the survival of many established firms extremely doubtful. The expansion of the major bookselling chains, coupled with antiquated distribution and marketing methods, would cause many indie bookstores to close. Authors of talent, vision, and intellect would find it harder to be published than ever before. Readers would grow more jaded by a glut of formula books, or more frustrated finding that special title to suit their needs. Leonard Shatzkin''s "In Cold Type" explores the reasons behind the publishing crisis of that time. Neither an essay about the perils of the best-seller list syndrome nor a bland sociological study, "In Cold Type" is a sharp critique of exactly what was wrong with the nuts and bolts of publishing and the ingrained attitudes that resisted change and reform. Backed by more than thirty-five years of experience in executive positions at major houses, Leonard Shatzkin describes publishing''s nineteenth-century methods of distribution, the marginal profitability of booksellers, unnecessary evils of remaindering, waste in book production, decline of the editorial function to a clerkship, collapse of the paperback book publishers, what authors need to know about their publishers'' "skills," and why the common complaint "We publish too many books!" is not true.Shatzkin not only saw what was, he also what could be, and offered new solutions that helped the book industry overcome its malaise. His solutions were immediate, practical, and necessary, and many of his insights, particularly about inventory management and standardization ultimately revitalized the publishing industry.

Bernard Goldstein was a prominent Polish socialist, union organizer and Bund leader in the pivotal years of 1920 and 1921. He became active as a leader of the Jewish resistance movement in German-occupied Poland, eventually playing a critical role on the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943.Bernard was born in Shedltze, just three hours from Warsaw, in 1889. Bernard gave much time to trade-union organization and was also active in Bundist party work. He was in charge of all large political demonstrations. During the 20-year period between the wars there was not a single Warsaw Bund mass meeting or demonstration of which Bernard was not the key organizer.In 1920-21 the Warsaw Bund found it necessary to set up special defense groups to protect public demonstrations from attacks by Polish hooligans, and to maintain order in the crowded union halls. Shortly after their organization, Bernard was placed at the head of these groups.The most difficult task of Goldstein''s long political career was setting down the story told here. For a long time he refused to undertake it. Only after repeated pleadings from his comrades, particularly the late Shloime Mendelsohn, did he attempt it.His active leadership before the war and his position in the Jewish underground during it qualify him as the chronicler of the last hours of Warsaw''s Jews. Out of the tortured memories of those 5-1/2 years he has presented the picture with all its shadings-the good with the bad, the cowardly with the heroic, the disgraceful with the glorious. This is his valedictory, his final service to the Jews of Warsaw.The appeal to Bernard''s sense of duty reversed his early stubborn refusal to write this book, but nothing could shake his modesty. He forever refused to speak of the bloody encounters in which he was an organizer and active participant. For him, the heroes of the Warsaw ghetto died in battle and no one should strike a pose upon their ashes.