COLUMBIA
LIBRARY
COLUMNS
 

Random House; or Fun and Profit
in the Search for Excellence

WILLIAA/l B. LIEBMANN

Becatise the author of the following article was a New York bookseller
for nearly three decades and because he was thereby a close observer
of the changes effected by the then emerging publishing firm, we have
asked him to comment for us on some of the Random House achieve¬
ments which have seemed most noteworthy to him.       editor's note
 

T
 

(/^ If ^HE presentation of the Random House editorial archives
to the Columbia Libraries was acknowledged in the last
number of the Columbia Library Columns. The same
issue also had an interesting article concerning Andre Malraux by
Professor Walter Langlois, which was based on research on just
one segment of this fascinating collection.

I believe, however, that some recollections concerning this
amazing company ^^'ill intrigue the reader and will also serve to
emphasize the tremendous impact and influence that Random
House has had on modern American book publishing.

It is an exciting subject to contemplate because Random House
is the perfect example of what was, is, and can be accomplished in
an un-computcrized society by the courage, humor, foresight and
intelligence of two men with a maximum of ver\'e and an over¬
whelming desire for the excellent.

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