Being both small independent publishers and ‘literary archaeologists’, unearthing and reviving forgotten gems of literature, it’s safe to say that we at Hesperus Press are champions of the underdog. We were all thrilled, then, to hear that Doris Lessing had been awarded the Nobel Prize; this seems a particularly rich justice (does that make sense? It’s been a long day) in the light of reports that Lessing was once informed by a member of the Nobel committee that she would ‘never win the Nobel Prize’ because: ‘We don’t like you.’ Substitute ‘egg and spoon race’ and you’ve got one of my most traumatic childhood memories right there.
Congratulations to Doris Lessing, then, and also thanks for the many wonderful forewords she has written for us over the years, including:
D.H. Lawrence, The Fox
Stendhal, Memoirs of an Egotist
Mikhail Bulgakov, The Fatal Eggs
Louisa May Alcott, Behind a Mask
Virginia Woolf, Carlyle’s House and Other Stories
Mikhail Lermontov, A Hero of Our Time
Colette, Claudine’s House
Watch this space for an extract from one of these forewords…
Ellie
What a great idea for a small press
I wish you published modern writers too.
Hi Irving,
Your wish is our command! In fact, recent years have seen us publishing an ever-growing number of contemporary authors. Most recently, we’ve published Pulitzer Prize-winner Annie Dillard’s ‘The Maytrees’ in the UK, and English language editions of Yasmine Ghata’s ‘The Calligraphers’ Night’, Laurent Gaude’s ‘The Scortas’ Sun’ and Marie Ferranti’s ‘The Princess of Mantua’. Please do browse our online catalogue at http://www.hesperuspress.com if you’d like any more information on any of these titles, or drop me a line to enquiries AT hesperuspress DOT com to request copies of our recent catalogues.
Best wishes,
Ellie
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