De Arbeiderspers

De Arbeiderspers
Industry Publishing
Founded 1929
Headquarters Amsterdam, Netherlands
Website http://www.arbeiderspers.nl/
Former building of Het Volk and De Arbeiderspers, Hekelveld 15, Amsterdam, designed by Jan Buijs[1]

De Arbeiderspers is a Dutch publishing company, started as a socialist enterprise. The name means 'The Workers' Press'. The company was started in 1929 as a combination of the publishing firm N.V. Ontwikkeling and the Dutch Social Democratic Workers' Party newspaper Het Volk. Currently it is part of a larger media conglomerate, the Weekbladpersgroep, which also includes publishing companies De Bezige Bij and Querido.[2] One of the more notable directors of the company, Martin Ros, resigned in 1997.[3]

Company management and politics

Until well into the 1960s, the press was known as a "socialist bastion," and until Martin Ros joined in 1964, literature was regarded with suspicion—the press published regional novels by authors such as Herman de Man and A.M. de Jong. Ros, a well-read and well-spoken man, was hired specifically to "stir the pot," and one of his first acquisitions was Gerrit Komrij, at the time a young poet with formalist, not socialist, tendencies. Ros is also responsible, with then-director Johan Veeninga, for the Privé-domein series. Theo Sontrop joined the company in 1972.[4]

Until 1991, Sontrop was the managing director. Ronald Dietz succeeded him, and during his tenure the press lost some of its high-profile writers (Jeroen Brouwers, Kristien Hemmerechts, and others). When, in 2000, Gerrit Komrij, one of the best-known Dutch writers, came under contract with De Bezige Bij, pressure on Dietz increased and he resigned his position. Rob Haans became interim director.[2]

Privé-domein

One of the Arbeiderspers's most successful series is Privé-domein ("private domain"), containing memoirs and autobiographies. The series was inspired by a similar series of ego documents by Editions du Cap, called Domaine privé, whose title was borrowed as well. The first volumes (containing a memoir by Mary McCarthy and a volume of titillating diary entries by Paul Léautaud) were published in 1966, and in forty-five years almost three hundred books appeared in the series. The "golden years" of the series were the 1980s, when its editors were Martin Ros, Theo Sontrop, and Emile Brugman.[4]

References

  1. ↑ "De Arbeiderspers, 1930s". International Institute of Social History. Retrieved 2009-07-21.
  2. 1 2 Fortuin, Arjen (2000-09-29). "Problemen bij uitgeverij De Arbeiderspers". NRC Handelsblad (in Dutch). Retrieved 2009-07-20.
  3. ↑ Bloem, Onno (1997-04-28). "Martin Ros: De Arbeiderspers, dat ben ik". Trouw (in Dutch). Retrieved 2009-07-20.
  4. 1 2 Kultert, Lisa (12 March 2011). "Het literaire leven zelf: Privé-domein, pantheon van de bekentenisliteratuur". Vrij Nederland. pp. 64–67.

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External links

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