The end of a publishing era

[Ellen Elias-Bursac]

Dear Andrew,
I, and, I am sure, many others, want to thank you and all your colleagues
who edited Writings from an Unbound Europe for your remarkable,
ground-breaking work. You did much more than just focus interest on Eastern
European literature. Your efforts have awakened interest in translated
literature in the States. You brought American readers remarkable authors
who are read by students and readers in the general public all over the
country. That the readers borrow the books from libraries, buy them
second-hand, or take them off the web may make it hard for you to justify
continuing the series, but it does not diminish the importance of the fact
that the authors are being read and appreciated. We are all in your debt,
Sincerely,
Ellen Elias-Bursac


2011/5/7 ANDREW WACHTEL <awachtel59 at gmail.com>

> RIP - Writings from an Unbound Europe
>
> The editors of Northwestern University Press have decided to end the run of
> Writings from an Unbound Europe, the only more or less comprehensive book
> series devoted to translated contemporary literature from the former
> communist countries of Eastern/Central Europe.  The final title in the
> series, the novel Sailing Against the Wind (Vastutuulelaev) by the Estonian
> Jaan Kross (1920-2007) will appear in a translation by Eric Dickens some
> time in 2012.  With that title Unbound Europe will have published 61 books
> since its inception in 1993.  Among the highlights of what has been
> published over this twenty-year period are the first English-language
> editions of David Albahari, Ferenc Barnas, Petra Hůlová, Drago Jančar,
> Anzhelina Polonskaya, and Goce Smilevski.  By far the best selling title in
> the series is Death and the Dervish (Drviš i smrt) by the Bosnian writer
> Meša Selimović (1910-1982), which has sold close to 6000 copies since it
> appeared in 1996. In recent years, however, changes in book-buying habits
> and diminished interest in Eastern/Central Europe in the English speaking
> world have led to significantly lower sales, even for masterpieces by such
> major writers as Borislav Pekić and Bohumil Hrabal.  I would like to thank
> the series co-editors Clare Cavanagh, Michael Henry Heim, Roman Koropeckyj,
> and Ilya Kutik as well as several generations of Northwestern University
> Press editors and directors for their work on this project.  Most of the
> books published in the series remain in print and will continue to be
> available on the Northwestern University Press backlist.
>
> Andrew Wachtel
> General Editor
> Writings from an Unbound Europe
>
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