![]() | |
Parent company | Unitarian Universalist Association |
---|---|
Founded | 1854 |
Country of origin | United States |
Headquarters location | Boston |
Distribution | Penguin Random House Publisher Services (worldwide) Publishers Group UK (UK) [1] |
Key people | Gayatri Patnaik, director |
Official website | www |
Beacon Press is an American left-wing [2] non-profit book publisher. Founded in 1854 by the American Unitarian Association, it is currently a department of the Unitarian Universalist Association. [3] It is known for publishing authors such as James Baldwin, Mary Oliver, Martin Luther King Jr., and Viktor Frankl, as well as The Pentagon Papers .
The history of Beacon Press actually begins in 1825, the year the American Unitarian Association (AUA) was formed. This liberal religious movement had the enlightened notion to publish and distribute books and tracts that would spread the word of their beliefs not only about theology but also about society and justice.
In the Press of the American Unitarian Association (as Beacon was called then) purchased and published works that were largely religious in nature and "conservative Unitarian" in viewpoint (far more progressive, nonetheless, than many other denominations). The authors were often Unitarian ministers—dead or alive, American or British, mostly Caucasian, and far more male than female. Many of the books were collections of sermons, lectures, and letters, balanced by volumes of devotion, hymns, and morally uplifting tales.
In the early 1900s Samuel Eliot broadened the mission of the press by publishing books dealing with ethical, sociological, philanthropic, and similar subjects, as well as those of a more strictly religious character.... Although books of marked theology and religious note continued to have a predominant place in Association publication, the wide interest in all subjects relating to social and moral betterment were included and the evergrowing topics of war and peace and arbitration, or national amity and racial brotherhood were represented
Under director Gobin Stair (1962–75), new authors included James Baldwin, Kenneth Clark, André Gorz, Herbert Marcuse, Jürgen Habermas, Howard Zinn, Ben Bagdikian, Mary Daly, and Jean Baker Miller. Wendy Strothman became Beacon's director in 1983; she set up the organization's first advisory board, a group of scholars and publishing professionals who advised on book choices and direction. She turned a budget deficit into a surplus. In 1995, her last year at Beacon, Strothman summarized the Press's mission: "We at Beacon publish the books we choose because they share a moral vision and a sense that greater understanding can influence the course of events. They are books we believe in." [4] Strothman was replaced by Helene Atwan in 1995.
In 1971, it published the "Senator Gravel edition" of The Pentagon Papers for the first time in book form, when no other publisher was willing to risk publishing such controversial material. Robert West, then-president of the Unitarian Universalist Association, approved the decision to publish The Pentagon Papers , which West claims resulted in two-and-a-half years of harassment and intimidation by the Nixon administration. [5] In Gravel v. United States , the Supreme Court decided that the Constitution's "Speech or Debate Clause" protected Gravel and some acts of his aide, but not Beacon Press.
Beacon Press seeks to publish works that "affirm and promote" several principles:
the inherent worth and dignity of every person; justice, equity and compassion in human relations; acceptance of one another; a free and responsible search for truth and meaning; the right of conscience and the use of the democratic process in society; the goal of the world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all; respect for the interdependent web of all existence; and the importance of literature and the arts in democratic life.
Beacon Press is a member of the Association of University Presses. [6] [7]
Beacon Press publishes non-fiction, fiction, and poetry titles. Some of Beacon's best-known titles are listed below.
The following is a list of some of the principal series; it is not comprehensive.
In 2009, Beacon Press announced a new partnership with the Estate of Martin Luther King Jr. for a new book series publishing program, "The King Legacy." [51] As part of the program, Beacon is printing new editions of previously published King titles and compiling Dr. King's writings, sermons, orations, lectures, and prayers into entirely new editions, including new introductions by leading scholars.
Beacon Press launched its blog, Beacon Broadside, in late September 2007. [52]
In 1992, Beacon won a New England Book Award for publishing. [53] In 1993, Beacon was voted "Trade Publisher of the Year" by the Literary Market Place. [54]
Unitarian Universalism is a liberal religious movement characterized by a "free and responsible search for truth and meaning". Unitarian Universalists assert no creed, but instead are unified by their shared search for spiritual growth. Unitarian Universalists do not have an official, unified corpus of sacred texts. Unitarian Universalist congregations include many atheists, agnostics, deists, and theists; there are churches, fellowships, congregations, and societies around the world.
Thomas Starr King, often known as Starr King, was an American Universalist and Unitarian minister, influential in California politics during the American Civil War, and Freemason. Starr King spoke zealously in favor of the Union and was credited by Abraham Lincoln with preventing California from becoming a separate republic. He is sometimes referred to as "the orator who saved the nation".
Maria Mitchell was an American astronomer, librarian, naturalist, and educator. In 1847, she discovered a comet named 1847 VI that was later known as "Miss Mitchell's Comet" in her honor. She won a gold medal prize for her discovery, which was presented to her by King Christian VIII of Denmark in 1848. Mitchell was the first internationally known woman to work as both a professional astronomer and a professor of astronomy after accepting a position at Vassar College in 1865. She was also the first woman elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Mary Daly was an American radical feminist philosopher and theologian. Daly, who described herself as a "radical lesbian feminist", taught at the Jesuit-run Boston College for 33 years. Once a practicing Roman Catholic, she had disavowed Christianity by the early 1970s. Daly retired from Boston College in 1999, after violating university policy by refusing to allow male students in her advanced women's studies classes. She allowed male students in her introductory class and privately tutored those who wanted to take advanced classes.
The American Unitarian Association (AUA) was a religious denomination in the United States and Canada, formed by associated Unitarian congregations in 1825. In 1961, it consolidated with the Universalist Church of America to form the Unitarian Universalist Association.
Mary Jane Oliver was an American poet who won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. She found inspiration for her work in nature and had a lifelong habit of solitary walks in the wild. Her poetry is characterized by sincere wonderment and profound connection with the environment, conveyed in unadorned language and simple yet striking imagery. In 2007, she was declared the country's best-selling poet.
Frank Forrester Church IV was a leading Unitarian Universalist minister, author, and theologian. He was Senior Minister of the Unitarian Church of All Souls in New York City, until late 2006 when he was appointed as Minister of Public Theology. He wrote about Christianity, Gnosticism, religious liberty in the US tradition, and his own father, a US Senator.
James Ishmael Ford is an American Zen Buddhist priest and a retired Unitarian Universalist minister. He was born in Oakland, California on July 17, 1948. He earned a BA in psychology from Sonoma State University, as well as an M.Div. and an MA in the Philosophy of Religion, both from the Pacific School of Religion.
The Young People's Christian Union (Y.P.C.U.), organized in 1889, was a Universalist youth group created to develop the spiritual life of young people and advance the work of the Universalist church. Soon after it was founded, the Y.P.C.U. focused its attention on missionary work. It was instrumental in the founding of new southern churches and the creation of a Post Office Mission for the distribution of religious literature.
Angus & Robertson (A&R) is a major Australian bookseller, publisher and printer. As book publishers, A&R has contributed substantially to the promotion and development of Australian literature. The brand currently exists as an online shop owned by online bookseller Booktopia. The Angus & Robertson imprint is still seen in books published by HarperCollins, a News Corporation company.
Unitarian Universalism, as practiced by the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA), and the Canadian Unitarian Council (CUC), is a non-Creedal and Liberal theological tradition and an LGBTQ affirming denomination.
John A. Buehrens is an American Unitarian Universalist minister and author.
Paul Kendrick is an American author of popular history.
Arthur Powell Davies was the minister of All Souls Church, Unitarian in Washington, D.C. from 1944 until his death in 1957. A prolific author of theological books and sermon collections, he came to national prominence in the U.S. through his liberal activism advocating civil rights for African-Americans and women and ethical stands against post-war nuclear proliferation and the methods employed by the American government during the era of McCarthyism.
Gyokuko Carlson is a Soto Zen roshi and abbess of Dharma Rain Zen Center in Portland, Oregon, United States.
John Bovee Dods was a philosopher, spiritualist, mesmerist, and early psychologist.
The Concept of Nature in Marx is a 1962 book by the philosopher Alfred Schmidt. First published in English in 1971, it is a classic account of Karl Marx's ideas about nature.
An Essay on Liberation is a 1969 book by the Frankfurt School philosopher Herbert Marcuse.
Mary C. Billings was an American evangelist, missionary, and writer. She was Texas' first ordained woman Universalist minister.
The Christian Universalist Church of America is a small non-creedal denominational body created in 1964 in Deerfield Beach, Florida as a result of the merger between the Universalist Church of America with the American Unitarian Association in 1961. The Christian Universalist Church of America teaches and promotes the doctrine of Universal Reconciliation. The church ceased to exist in 1967 at which time it claimed 200 churches and missions in 21 states with more than 15,000 members and was reestablished in 2001 in the state of Indiana first as the Universalist Church, then as the Universalist Congregations of North America and then back to its original and current name. The Church subscribes to the Winchester Profession of Faith.
Among left-wing publishers have been stalwarts like Beacon Press
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)