New Directions Publishing

New Directions was born in 1936 of Ezra Pound's advice to the young James Laughlin, then a Harvard University sophomore, to "do something useful" after finishing his studies at Harvard.[3] The first projects to come out of New Directions were anthologies of new writing, each titled New Directions in Poetry and Prose (until 1966's NDPP 19). Early writers incorporated in these anthologies include Dylan Thomas, Marianne Moore, Wallace Stevens, Thomas Merton, Denise Levertov, James Agee, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

New Directions later broadened their focus to include writing of all genres, representing not only American writing, but also a considerable amount of literature in translation from modernist authors around the world. New Directions also published the early work of many writers including Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams, and Tennessee Williams was published as a poet for the very first time in a New Directions poetry collection.

Laughlin also initiated a number of thematic series and publications. The New Directions "Poet of the Month" series consisted of thin volumes of either lengthy individual poems or small collections of poems by one author were released on a monthly basis to subscribers, and a larger "Poet of the Year" volume was issued once annually. The series were discontinued after a few years. "Directions" began in 1941 as a quarterly soft-bound journal, with each edition dedicated to a single author or work in prose. Early issues included a collection of short stories by Vladimir Nabokov and a play by William Carlos Williams. The subscription model did not take hold, and later editions in the series were published in more traditional form and sold as individual works to the general public. Another short-lived New Directions periodical, Pharos, was discontinued after its fourth number was published in the winter of 1947.

Other notable undertakings include the New Classics and Modern Readers series, which reissued recent books that had gone out of print. These reprints included such works as Exiles and Stephen Hero by James Joyce and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.[4]

After Laughlin's death, New Directions Publishing became owned by a trust established in his will.[5]

The current focus of New Directions is threefold: discovering and introducing to the US contemporary international writers; publishing new and experimental American poetry and prose; and reissuing New Directions' classic titles in new editions.

Drawing from the tradition of the early anthologies and series, New Directions launched the Pearl series, which presents short works by New Directions writers in slim, minimalist volumes designed by Rodrigo Corral. Recent additions to the series include On Booze by F. Scott Fitzgerald and The Leviathan by Joseph Roth.^[6] New Directions also publishes a selection of academic reading guides to accompany a number of their books, including Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha and The Night of the Iguana by Tennessee Williams.^[7]

• Labyrinths, Jorge Luis Borges
• A Coney Island of the Mind, Lawrence Ferlinghetti
• Siddhartha, Hermann Hesse
• Christie Malry's Own Double-Entry, B. S. Johnson
• Selected Poems, Denise Levertov
• The Air-Conditioned Nightmare, Henry Miller
• Nausea, Jean-Paul Sartre
• Turtle Island, Gary Snyder
• Miss Lonelyhearts & The Day of the Locust, Nathanael West
• The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams
• Selected Poems, William Carlos Williams
• The Cantos, Ezra Pound

• Laughlin, James. The Way It Wasn't. Ed. Barbara Epler and Daniel Javitch. New York: New Directions, 2006.
• Dana, Robert (2009). "Jame Laughlin" (PDF). Against the Grain: Interviews with Maverick American Publishers. University of Iowa Press. pp. 1–41. ISBN 9781587298943 – via Project Muse.

• New Directions Publishing Website
• Will Hall Books-- Checklist of early authors and books published by New Directions Press
• Alvin Lustig
• New Directions Vice President Declan Spring interviewed on publishing in a recession
• The New Inquiry on The New Directions Pearl series