Spiritual Classics Due From Harper SF

by Dale Buss -- Publishers Weekly, 8/30/2004

Harper San Francisco has long been known for its solid backlist in religion, popular among academics and other serious students of theology. But in a bid to move closer to the front of the store with such titles, the company has launched a line of 16 primers in Western spiritual thought, called HarperCollins Spiritual Classics.

The company is issuing the line under a licensing deal with Paulist Press, the Catholic house that traditionally has published the titles. Harper San Francisco hopes the $11.95 retail price will appeal to lay readers who want to go deeper into spiritual thought. Each title in the line will also feature a personal foreword by a contemporary writer to help place the work in a modern context.

"These are the foundational works that shaped Western thought and culture," said Mark Tauber, associate publisher of HSF. "But until now, they've largely been seen as just bulky and technical, only for seminaries and so on—not suited to the lay reader. We see the audience for these books as being similar to the general audience that reads Penguin Classics."

The diversity of the first four selections in Spiritual Classics, Tauber said, is designed to add to the line's appeal. They are Selected Prayers, Hymns and Sermons by John and Charles Wesley; The Cloud of Unknowing by Anonymous, a work of early Christian mysticism; Selections from the Interior Castle by Teresa of Avila; and Selections from the Dark Night and Other Writings by John of the Cross.