A World of Letters: Yale University Press, 1908-2008 (review)

To mark its hundredth anniversary, Yale University Press commissioned this unabashedly celebratory history written by the noted bibliophile Nicholas Basbanes. Slight in size and breezily written, the book is organized into just four chapters, representing the tenure of each of the Press's directors: George Parmley Day, class of 1897, who helped establish the Press and led it from 1908 to 1954 ("The Formative Years"); Chester Kerr, class of 1936, who oversaw its operations from 1954 to 1979 ("The Middle Years"); John Ryden, who ran the Press from 1979 until 2003 ("Enriching the Mix"); and John Donatich, who succeeded him (2003 - : "A Press in Transition").

Yale is a distinguished and thriving publishing house, the nation's largest books—only—based university press, with a rich history. Today YUP publishes more than 300 new titles annually, and sales exceed $35 million. It has published hundreds of world-class authors from Gore Vidal, Edmund Morgan, and Jaroslav Pelikan to E. H. Gombrich, Kai Erikson, and Adrienne Rich.

Basbanes relates some fascinating anecdotes, among them the events that preceded publication of Eugene O'Neill's "Long Day's Journey into Night" (1956) and those that followed publication of Eugene V. Rostow's A National Policy for the Oil Industry (1948), as well as the firestorm surrounding publication of The Vinland Map and the Tartar Relation (1965). But Basbanes often wanders off into topics that relate only tangentially to YUP (for example, the Ithaka Report; a lengthy discussion of libraries; the definition of a monograph). In a book of just 198 small and open pages these digressions are especially jarring in light of the near-absence of whole decades of YUP's history. Nonetheless, some important moments such as the decision to open a London office to publish art books, which quickly became a cash cow for the Press, and the establishment of the Annals of Communism series and of Yale Younger Poets do get their due. And there are recitations of best-sellers and of some of the Press's many distinguished books.

Surprisingly, there is no appendix listing Yale's winners of the Pulitzer Prize, Bancroft Prize, National Book Award, and other honors. Nor is there an index, a decision that seems inexplicable. So, too, are some other book-making decisions. The volume is "perfect" bound—glued, not sewn; it is adorned with plain white end leaves; and it is wrapped in paper-on-board binding rather than cloth. These penny-pinching decisions run counter to the special centennial website, the publicity, the spare-no-expense star-studded conference, and the other entirely appropriate celebrations of YUP's anniversary.

Basbanes notes that the University's motto is lux et veritas—light and truth—"words that have special relevance to a publishing enterprise whose goal it is to create an enduring world of letters." (xiii) Despite changes that the digital revolution has visited upon publishers of music, newspapers, magazines, and books, the history and commitment outlined in A World of Letters inspire confidence that Yale University Press will enjoy a second century marked not merely by endurance but by excellence.