Pascal Covici
Encyclopedia
Pascal Avram "Pat" Covici (1885–1964) was a Romania
n Jewish
-American
book publisher and editor.
, Romania
. He was the son of vintner
Wolf Covici and Schfra Barish. At the age of twelve, his family immigrated to Chicago
where his six brothers owned and managed a number of retail stores. He studied at the University of Michigan
and the University of Chicago
, but he did not graduate from either school. Afterwards, he worked at his brothers' stores.
, Florida
. In 1922, together with partner Billy McGee, he started a publishing company and bookstore in Chicago. The store became a popular spot for writers, the company published special, limited edition books , often created for collectors. Ben Hecht
's 1922 memoir, published by the firm, was labeled obscene and was restricted and confiscated by post office officials. Hecht, the illustrator Wallace Smith, and the publishers were arrested, pled no contest
, and had to pay a fine of $1,000.
. The play The Front Page
by Hecht and Charles MacArthur and the novel The Well of Loneliness
by Radclyffe Hall
garnered the company quick success. The Well of Loneliness was seized from Covici-Friede's offices after Friede sold a copy to John Saxton Sumner of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice
but the New York Court of Special Sessions cleared the book of charges of obscenity.
In addition to writers like Gene Fowler
, Wyndham Lewis
, Clifford Odets
, and Nathanael West
, their key author was John Steinbeck
whom they signed in 1934. They published Tortilla Flat
in 1935 and other new and reprinted Steinbeck works.
, where he convinced Steinbeck to sign. Viking Press published The Grapes of Wrath
, which received a 1940 Pulitzer Prize
. Overall, Covici's association with Steinbeck was long-lasting and highly honored by both sides.
Covici also worked on the Viking Portable Library and with authors like Joseph Campbell
, Ludwig Bemelmans
, Gilbert Highet
, Lionel Trilling
, Arthur Miller
, George Gamow
, Shirley Jackson
, Willy Ley
, Marianne Moore
, and Saul Bellow
. Bellow's novel Herzog
, Steinbeck's East of Eden, and Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle
are dedicated to Covici.
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
n Jewish
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
-American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
book publisher and editor.
Early life
Pascal Avram Covici, known to his friends as "Pat," was born November 4, 1885 in BotoşaniBotosani
Botoșani is the capital city of Botoșani County, in northern Moldavia, Romania. Today, it is best known as the birthplace of many celebrated Romanians, including Mihai Eminescu and Nicolae Iorga.- Origin of the name :...
, Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
. He was the son of vintner
Vintner
A vintner is a wine merchant. You pronounce it like this In some modern use, in particular in American English, the term is alsoused as a synonym for winemaker....
Wolf Covici and Schfra Barish. At the age of twelve, his family immigrated to Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
where his six brothers owned and managed a number of retail stores. He studied at the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
and the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
, but he did not graduate from either school. Afterwards, he worked at his brothers' stores.
Early publishing career
For several years, he published a monthly newspaper in BradentonBradenton, Florida
Bradenton is a city in Manatee County, Florida, United States. The U.S. Census Bureau estimated the city's 2007 population to be 53,471. Bradenton is the largest Principal City of the Bradenton-Sarasota-Venice, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area, which had a 2007 estimated population of 682,833...
, Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
. In 1922, together with partner Billy McGee, he started a publishing company and bookstore in Chicago. The store became a popular spot for writers, the company published special, limited edition books , often created for collectors. Ben Hecht
Ben Hecht
Ben Hecht was an American screenwriter, director, producer, playwright, and novelist. Called "the Shakespeare of Hollywood", he received screen credits, alone or in collaboration, for the stories or screenplays of some 70 films and as a prolific storyteller, authored 35 books and created some of...
's 1922 memoir, published by the firm, was labeled obscene and was restricted and confiscated by post office officials. Hecht, the illustrator Wallace Smith, and the publishers were arrested, pled no contest
Nolo contendere
is a legal term that comes from the Latin for "I do not wish to contend." It is also referred to as a plea of no contest.In criminal trials, and in some common law jurisdictions, it is a plea where the defendant neither admits nor disputes a charge, serving as an alternative to a pleading of...
, and had to pay a fine of $1,000.
New firm and controversy
When McGee left the company in connection to health issues in 1924, Covici continued to publish under Pascal Covici, Inc. Several years later, he began a firm with Donald Friede in New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. The play The Front Page
The Front Page
The Front Page is a hit Broadway comedy about tabloid newspaper reporters on the police beat, written by one-time Chicago reporters Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur which was first produced in 1928.-Synopsis:...
by Hecht and Charles MacArthur and the novel The Well of Loneliness
The Well of Loneliness
The Well of Loneliness is a 1928 lesbian novel by the British author Radclyffe Hall. It follows the life of Stephen Gordon, an Englishwoman from an upper-class family whose "sexual inversion" is apparent from an early age...
by Radclyffe Hall
Radclyffe Hall
Radclyffe Hall was an English poet and author, best known for the lesbian classic The Well of Loneliness.- Life :...
garnered the company quick success. The Well of Loneliness was seized from Covici-Friede's offices after Friede sold a copy to John Saxton Sumner of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice
New York Society for the Suppression of Vice
The New York Society for the Suppression of Vice was an institution dedicated to supervising the morality of the public, founded in 1873. Its specific mission was to monitor compliance with state laws and work with the courts and district attorneys in bringing offenders to justice. It and its...
but the New York Court of Special Sessions cleared the book of charges of obscenity.
In addition to writers like Gene Fowler
Gene Fowler
Gene Fowler was an American journalist, author and dramatist.He was born in Denver, Colorado. When his mother remarried, young Gene took his stepfather's name to become Gene Fowler. Fowler's career had a false start in taxidermy, which he later claimed permanently gave him a distaste for red meat...
, Wyndham Lewis
Wyndham Lewis
Percy Wyndham Lewis was an English painter and author . He was a co-founder of the Vorticist movement in art, and edited the literary magazine of the Vorticists, BLAST...
, Clifford Odets
Clifford Odets
Clifford Odets was an American playwright, screenwriter, socialist, and social protester.-Early life:Odets was born in Philadelphia to Romanian- and Russian-Jewish immigrant parents, Louis Odets and Esther Geisinger, and raised in Philadelphia and the Bronx, New York. He dropped out of high...
, and Nathanael West
Nathanael West
Nathanael West was a US author, screenwriter and satirist.- Early life :...
, their key author was John Steinbeck
John Steinbeck
John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. was an American writer. He is widely known for the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden and the novella Of Mice and Men...
whom they signed in 1934. They published Tortilla Flat
Tortilla Flat
Tortilla Flat is an early John Steinbeck novel set in Monterey, California. The novel was the author's first clear critical and commercial success....
in 1935 and other new and reprinted Steinbeck works.
Viking Press
In 1938, Covici moved to Viking PressViking Press
Viking Press is an American publishing company owned by the Penguin Group, which has owned the company since 1975. It was founded in New York City on March 1, 1925, by Harold K. Guinzburg and George S. Oppenheim...
, where he convinced Steinbeck to sign. Viking Press published The Grapes of Wrath
The Grapes of Wrath
The Grapes of Wrath is a novel published in 1939 and written by John Steinbeck, who was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1940 and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962....
, which received a 1940 Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
. Overall, Covici's association with Steinbeck was long-lasting and highly honored by both sides.
Covici also worked on the Viking Portable Library and with authors like Joseph Campbell
Joseph Campbell
Joseph John Campbell was an American mythologist, writer and lecturer, best known for his work in comparative mythology and comparative religion. His work is vast, covering many aspects of the human experience...
, Ludwig Bemelmans
Ludwig Bemelmans
Ludwig Bemelmans was an Austrian author, an internationally known gourmet, and a writer and illustrator of children's books. He is most noted today for his Madeline books, six of which were published from 1939-1961...
, Gilbert Highet
Gilbert Highet
Gilbert Arthur Highet was a Scottish-American classicist, academic, writer, intellectual, critic and literary historian....
, Lionel Trilling
Lionel Trilling
Lionel Trilling was an American literary critic, author, and teacher. With wife Diana Trilling, he was a member of the New York Intellectuals and contributor to the Partisan Review. Although he did not establish a school of literary criticism, he is one of the leading U.S...
, Arthur Miller
Arthur Miller
Arthur Asher Miller was an American playwright and essayist. He was a prominent figure in American theatre, writing dramas that include plays such as All My Sons , Death of a Salesman , The Crucible , and A View from the Bridge .Miller was often in the public eye,...
, George Gamow
George Gamow
George Gamow , born Georgiy Antonovich Gamov , was a Russian-born theoretical physicist and cosmologist. He discovered alpha decay via quantum tunneling and worked on radioactive decay of the atomic nucleus, star formation, stellar nucleosynthesis, Big Bang nucleosynthesis, cosmic microwave...
, Shirley Jackson
Shirley Jackson
Shirley Jackson was an American author. A popular writer in her time, her work has received increasing attention from literary critics in recent years...
, Willy Ley
Willy Ley
Willy Ley was a German-American science writer and space advocate who helped popularize rocketry and spaceflight in both Germany and the United States. The crater Ley on the far side of the Moon is named in his honor.-Life:...
, Marianne Moore
Marianne Moore
Marianne Moore was an American Modernist poet and writer noted for her irony and wit.- Life :Moore was born in Kirkwood, Missouri, in the manse of the Presbyterian church where her maternal grandfather, John Riddle Warner, served as pastor. She was the daughter of mechanical engineer and inventor...
, and Saul Bellow
Saul Bellow
Saul Bellow was a Canadian-born Jewish American writer. For his literary contributions, Bellow was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the Nobel Prize for Literature, and the National Medal of Arts...
. Bellow's novel Herzog
Herzog (novel)
Herzog is a 1964 novel by Saul Bellow. Letters from the protagonist constitute much of the text.Herzog won the 1965 National Book Award for Fiction and the The Prix International...
, Steinbeck's East of Eden, and Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle
We Have Always Lived in the Castle
We Have Always Lived in the Castle is the final novel by Shirley Jackson, published in 1962, three years before her death in 1965. In 1966, the novel was adapted into a play by Hugh Wheeler...
are dedicated to Covici.
Death and legacy
Pat Covici died October 14, 1964. His relationship with John Steinbeck is portrayed in the book, "Steinbeck and Covici: The Story of a Friendship," edited by Thomas French.Other works published
- 1001 Afternoons in Chicago, Ben HechtBen HechtBen Hecht was an American screenwriter, director, producer, playwright, and novelist. Called "the Shakespeare of Hollywood", he received screen credits, alone or in collaboration, for the stories or screenplays of some 70 films and as a prolific storyteller, authored 35 books and created some of...
- Broken Necks {More 1001 Afternoon}, Ben HechtBen HechtBen Hecht was an American screenwriter, director, producer, playwright, and novelist. Called "the Shakespeare of Hollywood", he received screen credits, alone or in collaboration, for the stories or screenplays of some 70 films and as a prolific storyteller, authored 35 books and created some of...
- Fantazius Mallare, a Mysterious Oath, Ben HechtBen HechtBen Hecht was an American screenwriter, director, producer, playwright, and novelist. Called "the Shakespeare of Hollywood", he received screen credits, alone or in collaboration, for the stories or screenplays of some 70 films and as a prolific storyteller, authored 35 books and created some of...
- Kingdom of Evil, Ben HechtBen HechtBen Hecht was an American screenwriter, director, producer, playwright, and novelist. Called "the Shakespeare of Hollywood", he received screen credits, alone or in collaboration, for the stories or screenplays of some 70 films and as a prolific storyteller, authored 35 books and created some of...
- The Coming Struggle for Power, John StracheyJohn St Loe StracheyEvelyn John St Loe Strachey PC was a British Labour politician and writer.-Background and education:Born in Guildford, Surrey, the son of John Strachey, editor of The Spectator, he was educated at Eton College and Magdalen College, Oxford. At Oxford, he was editor, with Robert Boothby, of the...
- The Sweet Singer of Michigan, Julia Moore
- The Childernmass, Wyndham LewisWyndham LewisPercy Wyndham Lewis was an English painter and author . He was a co-founder of the Vorticist movement in art, and edited the literary magazine of the Vorticists, BLAST...
- Speakeasy Girl, Bobbie Meredith
- Bachelor's Wife, George A. Bagby
- Boy Crazy, Grace Perkins
Footnotes
- Ronald S. Marmarelli. "Covici, Pascal Avram"; American National Biography Online Feb. 2000.
External links
- Pascal Covici Collection at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at AustinUniversity of Texas at AustinThe University of Texas at Austin is a state research university located in Austin, Texas, USA, and is the flagship institution of the The University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, its campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol in Austin...