| Frederick A. Praeger | |
| Birth Date: | 16 September 1915 |
| Birth Place: | Vienna, Austria |
| Death Place: | Boulder, Colorado, United States |
| Nationality: | American |
| Occupation: | Publisher |
| Known For: | Founder of Frederick A. Praeger, Inc. |
| Awards: | Carey-Thomas Award (Publishers Weekly) |
Frederick A. Praeger (16 September 1915 – 28 May 1994) was an Austrian-born American publisher.[1] [2] In 1950 he founded Frederick A. Praeger, Inc., a "major Manhattan publishing house"[3] whose books would include "art books and books about the Cold War, international affairs, and the military".[4] The firm is now an imprint of the Greenwood Publishing Group.[5] [6]
Frederick Amos Praeger was born in Vienna, Austria on 16 September 1915. His parents were Maximilien "Max" Mayer Präger, an Austrian publisher and newspaper editor, and Mariem Präger (née Foerster). He was an only child.
In 1933-1938 he undertook studies in law and political science at the University of Vienna and in 1934 he studied at the University of Paris. In the years 1935-1938 he also worked in his father's publishing house, R. Loewit Verlag in Vienna.
In 1938, following the rise of Nazism in Austria and with the Praeger family, as Jews, finding itself under increasing threats, he was briefly imprisoned and then migrated to the United States. His parents who remained behind would die in the Holocaust.
Upon his arrival Praeger worked in numerous jobs ("lens grinder, soda jerk, gas station attendant"[7]) before becoming an American citizen in 1941 and serving in the U.S. Army in Europe during the Second World War and in the U.S. military government in Germany and in "various intelligence and editorial capacities" after the war's end.
Returning to the United States, he founded a book-export business. In 1950, using borrowed money, he set up a book publishing firm which would later be named the Frederick A. Praeger, Inc. (also referred as Praeger Publishers) and a subsidiary firm, Inter Books, Inc.
His early publishing successes included several books by former Communists who had become disillusioned with the cause, including (1957) by the Yugoslav dissident, Milovan Djilas, The Naked God: The Writer and the Communist Party (1957) by Howard Fast, and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (1963) by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.
Praeger now turned to publishing art books, such as Picasso: A Study of his Work by Frank Elgar / A Biographical Study by Robert Maillard (1958), whose edition of 38,000 sold out, "an impressive achievement for an art book" and The Arts and Civilization of Angkor (1957) by Bernard-Phillippe Groslier. His firm contracted with the Whitney Museum to publish and distribute all of that institution's books.
During its existence Frederick A. Praeger, Inc. published more than 2,000 titles and issued many "outstanding" book series including the Praeger Paperbacks,[8] the Praeger University Series,[9] the Praeger World of Art Paperbacks/Series, the Praeger Publications in Russian History & World Communism, the Praeger Special Studies Series, and the Praeger Film Library.
In 1966 Praeger sold his firm to William B. Benton, an American senator and publisher and the chairman of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. In 1977 it was sold to CBS in 1977, in 1986 to Elsevier, and finally to the Greenwood Publishing Group.
During the 1960s and 1970s he also served in editorial and managerial roles with various British and American publishing firms, including Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, the Phaidon Press, London, Phaidon Publishers, New York, and the Pall Mall Press, London. In the years 1968-1974 Praeger resided in Austria and worked with two Munich publishing firms: the Schuler Verlag and the Kunst Verlag Praeger.
Having moved back to America, he founded the Westview Press in Boulder, Colorado in 1975, which specialised in "scholarly scientific and technical books" printed in inexpensive typewritten formats and issued without dust wrappers. This firm was sold to SCS Communications in 1989 and now owned by Taylor & Francis.
Praeger's publishing output benefited from the rising college library budgets in the United States from the mid-20th century and in response he published numerous academic titles and book series in the fields of "international relations, Russian and German history, military science and art" that are still held by major libraries.
His seeking out and publishing the writings of Soviet bloc dissidents during the Cold War brought "the realities of Communism to the Western reading public".
His profusely illustrated art books sought to match the offerings of other American, British and European publishers such as Abrams Books, the Phaidon Press, Skira and Zwemmer in bringing higher quality volumes to the shelves of the general public.[10] [11]
Praeger married three times. He died in Boulder, Colorado on 28 May 1994. He was survived by his third wife, Kellie Masterson, and his four daughters, Claudia Sargent, Andrea Praeger, Manya Praeger and Alexandra Praeger.
1957: Carey-Thomas Award (Publishers Weekly/R. R. Bowker Company) for outstanding creative publishing in obtaining and offering the Djilas book
The following is a list of some of the principal series; it is not comprehensive.
Below is a list of some of the main series; it is not comprehensive.