ON PUBLISHING: A Professional Memoir

"This book is a limited edition," notes Leventhal at the start of this memoir, published by the British house he founded and continues to run. With those words, this giant of the British publishing industry reveals one of the few errors of judgment he's made during a long and distinguished career; an error because a book such as this one, congenial, informative and wise, deserves—and is bound to win—a wider readership than Leventhal projects. As the subtitle says, this is a professional, not personal, memoir, and so the story begins in 1954, with the 15-year-old author, having left school, taking a job at a small bookstore in Edgeware. One of his first duties was to advertise a book party by walking around in a spaceman's suit. But the manufacturer forgot to install air vents, and "it was only when I lowered myself to the ground and started beating the Perspex bubble helmet on the pavement that the crowd realised that I had a problem"—one instance of many of the good humor with which Leventhal leavens his text. Leventhal's life journey takes him, and the reader, through his work at Paul Hamlyn; his founding and years of work with Arms & Armour Press; his creation in 1971 of the Specialist Publishers' Exhibition for Libraries, which grew into today's London Book Fair; his founding of and years with Greenhill. Along the way, Leventhal devotes fascinating chapters to working with the Soviets, with American publishers, with assorted authors, and more. It's an inside look at British and intercontinental publishing that reflects a lifetime of smartly absorbed experience, and it's an inspiring look at that, because what shines forcefully through this memoir is Leventhal's passion for good books, well published—a passion that he transmits to the reader in one of the most engaging publishing memoirs to appear in years. (July)