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Culture and Commerce at a Postwar Publisher

Alexander Gode and Storm Publishers, 1945–1958

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Abstract

The tension between commerce and culture has long been recognized as characteristic of the publishing industry. Publishers seek to put forth quality works of cultural significance yet are constrained by the need to earn a profit. This article is a case study of how this conflict played out at a postwar New York City company, Storm Publishers. Storm was a one-person operation run by Alexander Gode-von Aesch, a German immigrant best known for his work as a linguist and translator. Gode founded the company in 1947 to publish The End Is Not Yet, a pacifist novel by the German playwright Fritz von Unruh. Storm went on to publish a diverse array of scholarly and trade books until it was dissolved in 1958. The article analyzes how Gode pursued a number of strategies—relying on personal connections, developing relationships with celebrities, purchasing advertisements, soliciting reviews, cutting costs, generating subsidiary rights income, and sheer tenacity and audacity—in order to compete with larger and more established Manhattan publishers. It argues Gode harbored a contradictory attitude toward the culture–commerce dichotomy, asserting that his aim was to distribute quality works that could not make a profit while at the same time publishing books aimed at bolstering his balance sheet and lamenting others’ lack of sales. As the first history of Storm Publishers, the article sheds light on the midcentury New York publishing industry and how a small firm sought to claim a place in the postwar intellectual economy.

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Notes

  1. Random House merged with Penguin in 2013 to form Penguin Random House, though it is unlikely our imaginary interlocutor would be aware of this.

  2. A backlist consists of a publisher’s books older than the current season that remain in print.

  3. Greco [5, 10] and Coser [4, 36].

  4. Lawrence M. Fisher, “Big Books From Small Houses: Tiny publishers take chances with avant garde books. The pay off can be high.” New York Times, March 23, 1986 [14].

  5. Lane [8, 37] and Miller [11, 6–7].

  6. Note that this characterization is more applicable to traditional trade houses and universities presses than to publishers of more utilitarian works (e.g., travel guides or textbooks), which have fewer cultural aspirations.

  7. Coser [4, 7].

  8. Of course, many works are both bestsellers and culturally significant.

  9. Potter [13, 152]. It remains an open question rather books will continue to be sold as physical (paper) products in perpetuity or whether they will be entirely supplanted by digital version.

  10. Greco [5, 5].

  11. Miller [11, 7–9].

  12. Appadurai [3, 3–90].

  13. The company is unrelated to today’s Storm Publishers, founded by Natasja Storm and focusing on young-adult fiction by Dutch and Flemish authors (http://www.stormpublishers.com/history/).

  14. http://library.albany.edu/speccoll/findaids/ger090.htm.

  15. “Alexander Gode, Translator, Dies: Helped to Develop Language for World’s Scientists,” New York Times, August 11, 1970 [14].

  16. Dennis Wepman, “Gode-von Aesch, Alexander,” American National Biography Online, http://www.anb.org/articles/20/20-91924.html.

  17. Ibid.

  18. “Alexander Gode, Translator, Dies,” New York Times, August 11, 1970 [14].

  19. Wepman, “Gode-von Aesch, Alexander,” American National Biography Online.

  20. Ibid.

  21. Gode to Unruh, October 30, 1945. Storm Publishers Records, University at Albany Libraries (hereafter SPR).

  22. Encyclopedia Britannica Online, s.v. “Fritz von Unruh,” http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/618415/Fritz-von-Unruh (accessed March 22, 2015).

  23. Ames Johnson, review of Fritz von Unruh, by Alvin Kronacher, American-German Review, February 1947.

  24. von Unruh [17, 539–40].

  25. Gode to Reinhold Niebuhr, February 23, 1948. SPR.

  26. Gode to Grete Berges, December 4, 1948. SPR.

  27. Gode to Unruh, October 30, 1945. SPR.

  28. Gode to Bernard Aschner, August 8, 1948. SPR.

  29. Gode’s October 30, 1945, letter to Unruh indicates that the first draft of the translation was unacceptable.

  30. Robert L. Crowell to Unruh, October 4, 1945. SPR.

  31. Crowell to Unruh, September 13, 1946. SPR.

  32. Kronacher [6].

  33. Gode to K. N. Kennedy (Colonial Press), February 17, 1947. SPR.

  34. Gode to William P Gleason (Colonial Press), October 5, 1946. SPR.

  35. Gode to Kennedy, February 17, 1947. SPR.

  36. Gode to Gleason, October 5, 1946. SPR. It is unclear to which of the many Mr. Storms Gode was referring (see a sampling at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storm_%28surname%29). Perhaps he simply liked the idea of a publisher named after its founder.

  37. Heinz Lunau to booksellers, editors, and librarians (open letter), September 1948. SPR.

  38. Gode to Calvert Carroll (Baltimore New Post), April 19, 1947. SPR.

  39. S. Stephenson Smith, “Another Saviour from Verdun,” New York Times, May 4, 1947 [14].

  40. Gode to Mencken, March 16, 1947. SPR.

  41. Gode to Harry M. Ayers (Anniston Star), June 14, 1947. SPR.

  42. SPR and WorldCat, accessed March 24, 2015.

  43. Nettl [12].

  44. Howard Becker, review of The Germans on Trial, by Heinz Lunau, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, May 1949, reprinted in Storm advertising brochure held in SPR; Gode to S. Osborne Ball, January 4, 1949, SPR.

  45. Advertisement for Out of the Silence, August 25, 1950, SPR; Nan Mizrachi, “Ghost Stories with a Scientific Twist,” Brookyln Eagle, November 9, 1948; Israel Shote (Occult Sciences Library Service) to Gode, February 24, 1949, SPR.

  46. Michael Demarest, “Bump in the Night,” Argonaut, November 26, 1948. SPR.

  47. Kenneth Lash, review of Malinche; or, Farewell to Myths, New Mexico Quarterly Review, 29.1 (Spring 1949).

  48. Coser et al. [4, 37].

  49. Gode to Aschner, August 8, 1948. SPR.

  50. Ibid. Unfortunately, the firm’s accounting records are not preserved in the archive.

  51. Gode to Max L. Berges, April 2, 1949. SPR.

  52. Gode to Myer Agen, March 16, 1947. SPR.

  53. Gode to Unruh, June 12, 1947. SPR.

  54. Elizabeth Bartlett (Southern Methodist University) to Gode, March 3, 1948. SPR.

  55. Gode to Bartlett, March 12, 1948. SPR.

  56. Greco [5, 26].

  57. Potter [13, 123].

  58. Bean to Gode, January 6, 1950. SPR.

  59. Fritz von Unruh, The Saint: A Novel (New York: Random House, 1950).

  60. Greco [5, 183–84].

  61. Coser et al. [4, 205–207].

  62. Review clippings, SPR.

  63. Advertisement clippings, SPR.

  64. Ibid.

  65. Alfred Hassler (Fellowship Publications) to Gode, September 10, 1947. SPR.

  66. Gode to American Institute of Graphic Arts, January 31, 1949. SPR; Flyer for Storm books, SPR.

  67. Tebbel [16, 290–92].

  68. Meredith Wood (Book-of-the-Month Club) to Gode, May 27, 1947, October 29, 1948, and April 19, 1949. SPR.

  69. Coser et al. [4, 70–93].

  70. Richard Wright to Fritz von Unruh, April 17, 1946. SPR.

  71. Gode to Barzun, March 22, 1947. SPR.

  72. Barzun to Gode, April 7, 1947. SPR. A search of the Harper’s archive does not turn up any reviews of the novel.

  73. Gode to Dulles, February 22, 1949; Dulles to Gode, March 3, 1949. SPR.

  74. Gode to Einstein, March 20, 1949. SPR.

  75. Einstein to Gode, March 26, 1949. SPR.

  76. Gode to Eisenhower, June 8, 1948. SPR.

  77. Eisenhower to Gode, June 16, 1948. SPR.

  78. Gode to Lehman, August 1950. SPR.

  79. Lehman to Gode, August 14, 1950. SPR.

  80. Gode to Niebuhr, February 29, 1948; Niebuhr to Gode, March 2, 1948. SPR.

  81. Gode to Mencken, March 16, 1947. SPR.

  82. Mencken to Gode, March 21, 1947. SPR.

  83. Potter [13, 21].

  84. Gode to Greta Berges, December 4, 1948; Gode to van Blommestein, August 23, 1947; Gode to J. Szentkiralyi, September 11, 1947. SPR.

  85. Tebbel [16, 4].

  86. Gode to William F. Gleason (Colonial Press), December 14, 1946. SPR.

  87. Nettl [12, copyright page].

  88. Greco [5, 125].

  89. See, for example, Krueger [7].

  90. Gode to Miss Gottlieb (Ambassador Book Shop), September 6, 1947. SPR.

  91. Gode to Bay Colony Bookshop, May 24, 1947; Gode to Ambassador Book Shop, September 6, 1947; Gode to J. S. Allen, July 12, 1947. SPR.

  92. Gode to Charles Angoff, April 19, 1947; Gode to Harry M. Ayers, June 14, 1947. SPR.

  93. Gode to Donald S. Cameron, September 25, 1948. SPR.

  94. Emilio Abello to Gode, February 28, 1949. SPR.

  95. Gode to Abello, March 9, 1949. SPR.

  96. Alcove Book Shop to Gode, May 6, 1947. SPR.

  97. Gode to Alcove Book Shop, May 8, 1947. SPR.

  98. Greco [5, 36–40].

  99. Gode to Barber’s Book Store, January 28, 1948. SPR.

  100. Gode to W. J. Schnoor, February 14, 1949. SPR.

  101. Flyer for The End Is Not Yet, 1950. SPR.

  102. Gode to Roy Temple House (Books Abroad), January 28, 1948. SPR.

  103. Gode to Joseph Szentkirályi, June 8, 1947. SPR.

  104. Gode to Olov E. Anderson, February 22, 1949. SPR.

  105. Ibid.

  106. Ibid.

  107. Gode, “The Symbol of Our Publishing Philosophy” (Draft), 1946–47. SPR.

  108. David Gebhard, “Neutra, Richard Joseph” American National Biography Online, http://www.anb.org/articles/17/17-00618.html.

  109. Neutra to Gode, November 23, 1947; December 3, 1947. SPR.

  110. Gode to Neutra, February 23, 1948. SPR.

  111. Gode to Neutra, March 26, 1948; February 29, 1948; April 11, 1948. SPR.

  112. Talbot Hamlin, “The Making of Environment,” New York Times, February 21, 1954 [14].

  113. Gode to Neutra, February 29, 1948. SPR.

  114. Gode to Elizabeth Bartlett, March 12, 1948. SPR.

  115. Gode to S. Osborn Ball, January 4, 1949. SPR.

  116. Gode to Barlett, March 4, 1948. SPR.

  117. See Abel and Graham [1].

  118. See Madison [10], Lehmann-Haupt [9], and Tebbel [16].

  119. Tebbel [16, 350].

  120. Coser et al. [4, 21].

  121. Wepman, “Gode-von Aesch, Alexander,” American National Biography Online; “Alexander Gode, Translator, Dies,” New York Times, August 11, 1970 [2, 14].

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Acknowledgements

I thank Susan Gauss for extensive discussions regarding this project and for expert mentorship as the University at Albany History Department’s graduate director. Stephanie Long, Colleen Moriarty, and Ron Reagan, my colleagues in the program, provided feedback on an earlier draft. At the university’s M. E. Grenander Department of Special Collections and University Archives, Brian Keough and Jodi Boyle delivered invaluable research assistance. I am grateful to Robert Snyder for providing insightful comments on this work at the 2015 Researching New York Conference. Finally, I thank my parents, Michele and Seth Chaiken, for their constant support.

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    Rafael Chaiken

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Chaiken, R. Culture and Commerce at a Postwar Publisher. Pub Res Q 34, 485–503 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12109-018-9613-0

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