Everything is Nice: And Other Fiction - The Peter Owen 50th Annivesary Anthology

Description

Since 1951, the staunchly independent firm of Peter Owen has produced some of the most groundbreaking literature of any British publisher. With seven Nobel Prize winners and a backlist that includes some of the most talented writers from all over the world, Peter Owen's assault on the insular nature of Britain's reading habits put the company at the cutting edge of publishing throughout the second half of the twentieth century. This selection of fiction brings together a few of the most important authors published by the company - many of whom have since gone on to become household names - as well as some newer writers. Its founder Peter Owen says in his introduction that 'it is every publisher's ideal to introduce talented new writers, and we intend to go on doing this'; as this anniversary anthology demonstrates, the company have done just that for half a century - and intends to continue in this tradition.

"'My most vivid memory of my time at Peter Owen was of having lunch with John Lennon and Yoko Ono in a back room at Selfridges - Peter had published Ono's book Grapefruit, and they were doing a signing - and of Peter leaning across the table into Lennon's face and saying, 'I've had a few drinks and I'm going to be brutally frank...' What followed has vanished from my memory, but those inimitable words have stayed with me ever since. Grapefruit was in many ways a typical Peter Owen book: bold in concept, classically avante-garde and a marvellous piece of opportunistic publishing. That Peter has survived, indeed thrived, continuing to publish such a list is, on the face of it, a marvel, but it owes everything to Peter's courage, his eye for an opportunity, his thrift, his ability to look for books beyond these shores. Anyone who loves books owes him an enormous debt.' - Dan Franklin, Random House"