De Arbeiderspers
 |
|
| Industry | Publishing |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1929 |
| Headquarters | Amsterdam, Netherlands |
| Website | http://www.arbeiderspers.nl/ |
De Arbeiderspers is a Dutch publishing company, started as a socialist enterprise. The name means 'The Workers' Press'. The company was started in 1929 as a combination of the publishing firm N.V. Ontwikkeling and the Dutch Social Democratic Workers' Party newspaper Het Volk. Currently it is part of a larger media conglomerate, the Weekbladpersgroep, which also includes publishing companies De Bezige Bij and Querido.[2] One of the more notable directors of the company, Martin Ros, resigned in 1997.[3]
Company management and politics
Until well into the 1960s, the press was known as a "socialist bastion," and until Martin Ros joined in 1964, literature was regarded with suspicion—the press published regional novels by authors such as Herman de Man and A.M. de Jong. Ros, a well-read and well-spoken man, was hired specifically to "stir the pot," and one of his first acquisitions was Gerrit Komrij, at the time a young poet with formalist, not socialist, tendencies. Ros is also responsible, with then-director Johan Veeninga, for the Privé-domein series. Theo Sontrop joined the company in 1972.[4]
Until 1991, Sontrop was the managing director. Ronald Dietz succeeded him, and during his tenure the press lost some of its high-profile writers (Jeroen Brouwers, Kristien Hemmerechts, and others). When, in 2000, Gerrit Komrij, one of the best-known Dutch writers, came under contract with De Bezige Bij, pressure on Dietz increased and he resigned his position. Rob Haans became interim director.[2]
Privé-domein
One of the Arbeiderspers's most successful series is Privé-domein ("private domain"), containing memoirs and autobiographies. The series was inspired by a similar series of ego documents by Editions du Cap, called Domaine privé, whose title was borrowed as well. The first volumes (containing a memoir by Mary McCarthy and a volume of titillating diary entries by Paul Léautaud) were published in 1966, and in forty-five years almost three hundred books appeared in the series. The "golden years" of the series were the 1980s, when its editors were Martin Ros, Theo Sontrop, and Emile Brugman.[4]
References
Sources
- Sjaak Hubregtse. "Uitgeverij De Arbeiderspers: van ontstaan tot en met ontzuiling" in Marnix Krop, Martin Ros, Saskia Stuiveling and Bart Tromp (eds.) Het zevende jaarboek voor het democratisch socialisme. Amsterdam: De Arbeiderspers / Wiardi Beckman Stichting, 1986, ISBN 978-90-295-2306-6. pp. 132–67. Revised version in pdf (Dutch)
External links
- Alles over Privé-domein, website incl. reviews, catalog, and interviews.
