Speaking freely : my life in publishing and human rights / Robert L. Bernstein with Doug Merlino.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bernstein, Robert L., 1923- author.

Merlino, Doug, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Bernstein, Robert L., 1923-.

Bernstein, Robert L.

Random House (Firm)--History.

Random House (Firm).

Human Rights Watch (Organization)--History.

Human Rights Watch (Organization).

Publishers and publishing--United States--Biography.

Publishers and publishing.

Human rights workers--United States--Biography.

Human rights workers.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (385 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New York, New York ; London, [England] : The New Press, 2016.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

What do Dr. Seuss, William Faulkner, Toni Morrison, Andrei Sakharov, and James Michener have in common? They were all published by Bob Bernstein during his twenty-five-year run as president of Random House, before he brought the dissidents Liu Binyan, Jacobo Timerman, Natan Sharansky, and Václav Havel to worldwide attention in his role as the father of modern human rights. Starting as an office boy at Simon & Schuster in 1946, Bernstein moved to Random House in 1956 and succeeded Bennett Cerf as president ten years later. The rest is publishing and human rights history. In a charming and self-effacing work, Bernstein reflects for the first time on his fairy tale publishing career, hobnobbing with Truman Capote and E.L. Doctorow; conspiring with Kay Thompson on the Eloise series; attending a rally for Random House author George McGovern with film star Claudette Colbert; and working with publishing luminaries including Dick Simon, Alfred Knopf, Robert Gottlieb, André Schiffrin, Peter Osnos, Susan Peterson, and Jason Epstein as Bernstein grew Random House from a 40 million to an 800 million-plus "money making juggernaut," as Thomas Maier called it in his biography of Random House owner Si Newhouse. In a book sure to be savored by anyone who has worked in the publishing industry, fought for human rights, or wondered how Theodor Geisel became Dr. Seuss, Speaking Freely beautifully captures a bygone era in the book industry and the first crucial years of a worldwide movement to protect free speech and challenge tyranny around the globe.

Contents:

Youth

Office boy in waiting

At Random

On top, suddenly

Politics and publishing

The Russians

The birth of Helsinki Watch

From RCA to Newhouse

Finding our footing: human rights, 1980-85

The Soviet Union implodes: human rights, 1985-90

Random House in the 1980s: the Newhouse years

China

A new organization, a new approach

The future of human rights.

Notes:

Includes index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781620971727

1620971720

OCLC:

935885176