Regnery Publishing
Encyclopedia
Regnery Publishing in Washington, D.C.
, is a publisher which specializes in conservative
books characterized on their website as "contrary to those of 'mainstream' publishers in New York." Since 1993, Regnery Publishing has been a division of Eagle Publishing, which also owns the weekly magazine Human Events
. Regnery is currently led by President Marjory Ross, who had previously served as Vice President under President Al Regnery, son of the company's founder, until 1997.
Regnery has published books by authors such as former Republican Party
Chairman Haley Barbour
, Ann Coulter
, former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
Newt Gingrich
, columnist Michelle Malkin
, Islamic jihad specialist Robert Spencer
, pundit David Horowitz
, and Barbara Olson
.
. The first Henry Regnery Company was founded in Chicago in 1947 and sold in 1977. Henry Regnery then founded Regnery Publishing Inc. as a separate company.
as a weekly newsletter, Henry Regnery began publishing monthly pamphlets and books. A German-American, Regnery had studied in Germany
for two years and, while not sympathetic to Nazism, was always very sympathetic to Germans. Some of the first pamphlets he published, including a reprint of a speech by University of Chicago
President Robert M. Hutchins, criticized the harsh treatment of Germans and Japanese both in popular attitudes and in postwar administration of the former Axis countries
.
Regnery published the pamphlets and some books under the name of Human Events. He began publishing under his own name in September 1947. The first book published by Henry Regnery Publishers was by socialist
Victor Gollancz
who ran the Left Book Club
in Britain. A man of Jewish heritage, Gollancz was appalled at the bombing of German civilians late in the war and by the treatment of the country afterward. Gollancz published In Darkest Germany in Britain but was unable to find an American publisher for his unpopular ideas. He approached Regnery, who agreed to publish it. Regnery subsequently published the U.S. edition of Our Threatened Values by Gollancz.
Regnery's third book was The Hitler in Our Selves, by Max Picard
. Other early books included The German Opposition to Hitler by Hans Rothfels
and The High Cost of Vengeance (1949) by Freda Utley
which was critical of the Allies' air campaign and post-war occupation. Utley's book was the first Regnery book to be reviewed in The New York Times
, where it was excoriated. Reinhold Niebuhr
gave it a positive review in The Nation
magazine. But not all of Regnery's output during the period was so "highbrow," as one of the company's better sellers in 1975 was SuperJock: The loud, frantic, nonstop world of a rock radio DJ
by popular WCFL
disc jockey Larry Lujack
.
The company was founded as a nonprofit corporation. Regnery later wrote that it was initially organized that way, "not because I had any ideological objection to profits, but because, as it seemed to me then, and does still, in matters of excellence the market is a poor judge. The books that are most needed are often precisely those that will have only a modest sale." The Internal Revenue Service
forced the company to be reorganized as a for-profit concern on March 1, 1948. Regnery hired his first few employees that year.
.
In 1951, Regnery published God and Man at Yale
, the first book written by William F. Buckley, Jr.
. At that time, Regnery had a close affiliation with the University of Chicago
and published classics for the Great Books
series at the University, but he lost the contract as a result of publishing Buckley's book.
In 1953, Regnery published The Conservative Mind, a seminal book for Post World War II
American conservatism, as well as books by Albert J. Nock, James J. Kilpatrick
, James Burnham
and Whittaker Chambers
. He also published paperback editions of literary works by authors such as novelist Wyndham Lewis
and the poets T. S. Eliot
and Ezra Pound
.
In 1954, Regnery published McCarthy and His Enemies by William F. Buckley and L. Brent Bozell Jr.
"Although Mr. Buckley [...] had criticized the senator for 'gross exaggerations', Mr. McCarthy said he would not dispute the merits of the book with the authors", according to a news article in The New York Times
. While criticizing McCarthy, the book was sympathetic to him (and in fact was harsher on McCarthy's critics than it was on the senator for making false allegations), and McCarthy attended a reception for the authors.
In the early 1950s, Regnery published two books by Robert Welch
, who went on to found the John Birch Society
in 1958. In May God Forgive Us, Welch criticized influential foreign-policy analysts and policymakers and accused many of working to further Communism as part of a conspiracy. In 1954, Regnery published Welch's biography of John Birch
, an American Baptist missionary in China who was killed by Chinese Communists after he became a U.S. intelligence officer in World War II.
, which was reprinted numerous times by larger publishers, and eventually made into a film. They also published Coal Miner's Daughter, Loretta Lynn
's autobiography, in 1976, which was the basis for the film
.
. Alfred Regnery has subsequently left his post as President of Regnery Publishing to become the publisher of The American Spectator
magazine. His books are now published by Threshold Editions
, the conservative imprint
of CBS
-owned Simon & Schuster
which is run by Republican
strategist Mary Matalin
. He still holds a seat on the Regnery Board of Directors. Pat Sajak
also is a member of the board. Alex Novak, son of political columnist Robert Novak
, is director of marketing.
to" (multiple subjects), confronting what it conceives to be the assumptions of the nation's elites, sometimes negatively described as political correctness
. The Politically Incorrect Guides have often been referred to by their backronym
PIGS by supporters and opponents alike (Regnery's logo for the series features a pig's head). Former Regnery officials have described its marketing strategy as getting its conservative books condemned by the New York Times, generating very large sales to conservatives as a result.
Regnery books have often been the subject of controversy.
Regnery published Unlimited Access: An FBI Agent Inside The Clinton White House (1996) by Gary Aldrich
, which Max Blumenthal
, writing in The American Prospect
, claimed "... painted images of Hillary Clinton hanging crack pipes on the White House Christmas tree".http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?articleId=8442 Aldrich had written about an incident where Ms. Clinton ordered a batch of student artwork hung on the tree without examining it for suitability.http://books.google.com/books?id=TB7LLC_YwZIC&pg=PA105&lpg=PA105&dq=%22Three+French+hens+were+French+kissing+in+a+menage+a+trois%22&source=web&ots=dKgQsPejfy&sig=ZoMAQR6fJnCSKJPs_OPaM5RnUqI&hl=en
In June 2004, Regnery agreed to publish Unfit for Command by former Swift Boat Veteran John O'Neill and veteran author Dr. Jerome Corsi
. Television advertisements about Presidential candidate John Kerry
's criticisms of U.S. soldiers and recounting of his own military record in Vietnam were unveiled nationwide at about the same time as Unfit for Command was released, creating shortages of the book in bookstores nationwide. The book exceeded 1 million copies in print.
The Kerry campaign demanded that Regnery cease publication and distribution of Unfit for Command, saying there were inaccuracies in the book about Kerry's war record and anti-war activities at home. Regnery responded by offering to print and distribute a reply book by Kerry, suggesting "Winter Soldier" on the same subject matter that Kerry authored in the 1970s.
In describing Regnery's position in the publishing world, Nicholas Confessore
, then writer for the liberal American Prospect, said the following:
, Robert (Buzz) Patterson
, Joel Mowbray and Richard Miniter
--five authors whose works have been published by Regnery--filed a lawsuit
against the company. It claimed that Regnery "orchestrates and participates in a fraudulent, deceptively concealed and self-dealing
scheme to divert book sales away from retail outlets and to wholly owned subsidiary organizations" of Eagle Publishing, Regnery's parent corporation. Miniter said that meant that although he received about $4.25 a copy when his books sold in a bookstore or through an online retailer, he only earned about 10 cents a copy when his books sold through the Conservative Book Club or other Eagle-owned channels.
On January 30, 2008, a federal judge dismissed all eight counts of the lawsuit because the authors had signed contracts with Regnery which included mandatory arbitration clause in their contracts. The authors have sought arbitration with the company.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, is a publisher which specializes in conservative
American conservatism
Conservatism in the United States has played an important role in American politics since the 1950s. Historian Gregory Schneider identifies several constants in American conservatism: respect for tradition, support of republicanism, preservation of "the rule of law and the Christian religion", and...
books characterized on their website as "contrary to those of 'mainstream' publishers in New York." Since 1993, Regnery Publishing has been a division of Eagle Publishing, which also owns the weekly magazine Human Events
Human Events
Human Events is a weekly American conservative magazine. It takes its name from the first sentence of the United States Declaration of Independence...
. Regnery is currently led by President Marjory Ross, who had previously served as Vice President under President Al Regnery, son of the company's founder, until 1997.
Regnery has published books by authors such as former Republican Party
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
Chairman Haley Barbour
Haley Barbour
Haley Reeves Barbour is an American Republican politician currently serving as the 63rd Governor of Mississippi. He gained a national spotlight in August 2005 after Mississippi was hit by Hurricane Katrina. Barbour won re-election as Governor in 2007...
, Ann Coulter
Ann Coulter
Ann Hart Coulter is an American lawyer, conservative social and political commentator, author, and syndicated columnist. She frequently appears on television, radio, and as a speaker at public events and private events...
, former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
The Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, or Speaker of the House, is the presiding officer of the United States House of Representatives...
Newt Gingrich
Newt Gingrich
Newton Leroy "Newt" Gingrich is a U.S. Republican Party politician who served as the House Minority Whip from 1989 to 1995 and as the 58th Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999....
, columnist Michelle Malkin
Michelle Malkin
Michelle Malkin is an American conservative blogger, political commentator, and author. Her weekly syndicated column appears in a number of newspapers and websites. She is a Fox News Channel contributor and has been a guest on MSNBC, C-SPAN, and national radio programs...
, Islamic jihad specialist Robert Spencer
Robert Spencer
Robert Bruce Spencer is an American author and blogger best known for critiques of Islam and research into Islamic terrorism and jihad. He has published ten books, including two New York Times bestsellers, and is a regular contributor to David Horowitz's FrontPage Magazine and Human Events...
, pundit David Horowitz
David Horowitz
David Joel Horowitz is an American conservative writer and policy advocate. Horowitz was raised by parents who were both members of the American Communist Party. Between 1956 and 1975, Horowitz was an outspoken adherent of the New Left before rejecting Marxism completely...
, and Barbara Olson
Barbara Olson
Barbara Olson was a lawyer and conservative American television commentator who worked for CNN, Fox News Channel, and several other outlets...
.
History
Regnery Publishing is the second publishing company founded by Henry RegneryHenry Regnery
-Biography:Regnery was born to a textile manufacturer on January 12, 1912 in Hinsdale, Illinois. He obtained a degree in mechanical engineering from MIT in 1934, and an M.A. from Harvard University, where he worked with Joseph Schumpeter. He also studied at Armour Institute of Technology, and from...
. The first Henry Regnery Company was founded in Chicago in 1947 and sold in 1977. Henry Regnery then founded Regnery Publishing Inc. as a separate company.
Henry Regnery Company, 1947-1977
After helping to found Human EventsHuman Events
Human Events is a weekly American conservative magazine. It takes its name from the first sentence of the United States Declaration of Independence...
as a weekly newsletter, Henry Regnery began publishing monthly pamphlets and books. A German-American, Regnery had studied in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
for two years and, while not sympathetic to Nazism, was always very sympathetic to Germans. Some of the first pamphlets he published, including a reprint of a speech by 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...
President Robert M. Hutchins, criticized the harsh treatment of Germans and Japanese both in popular attitudes and in postwar administration of the former Axis countries
Axis Powers
The Axis powers , also known as the Axis alliance, Axis nations, Axis countries, or just the Axis, was an alignment of great powers during the mid-20th century that fought World War II against the Allies. It began in 1936 with treaties of friendship between Germany and Italy and between Germany and...
.
Regnery published the pamphlets and some books under the name of Human Events. He began publishing under his own name in September 1947. The first book published by Henry Regnery Publishers was by socialist
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
Victor Gollancz
Victor Gollancz
Sir Victor Gollancz was a British publisher, socialist, and humanitarian.-Early life:Born in Maida Vale, London, he was the son of a wholesale jeweller and nephew of Rabbi Professor Sir Hermann Gollancz and Professor Sir Israel Gollancz; after being educated at St Paul's School, London and taking...
who ran the Left Book Club
Left Book Club
The Left Book Club, founded in 1936, was a key left-wing institution of the late 1930s and 1940s in the United Kingdom set up by Stafford Cripps, Victor Gollancz and John Strachey to revitalise and educate the British Left. The Club's aim was to "help in the struggle For world peace and against...
in Britain. A man of Jewish heritage, Gollancz was appalled at the bombing of German civilians late in the war and by the treatment of the country afterward. Gollancz published In Darkest Germany in Britain but was unable to find an American publisher for his unpopular ideas. He approached Regnery, who agreed to publish it. Regnery subsequently published the U.S. edition of Our Threatened Values by Gollancz.
Regnery's third book was The Hitler in Our Selves, by Max Picard
Max Picard
Max Picard was a Swiss writer, important as one of the few thinkers writing from a deeply Platonic sensibility in the 20th century.-Selected books:...
. Other early books included The German Opposition to Hitler by Hans Rothfels
Hans Rothfels
Hans Rothfels was a nationalist conservative German historian. He supported an idea of authoritarian German state, dominance of Germany over Europe and was hostile to Germany's eastern neighbours...
and The High Cost of Vengeance (1949) by Freda Utley
Freda Utley
Winifred Utley, commonly known as Freda Utley, was an English scholar, political activist and best-selling author. After visiting the Soviet Union in 1927 as a trade union activist, she joined the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1928...
which was critical of the Allies' air campaign and post-war occupation. Utley's book was the first Regnery book to be reviewed in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, where it was excoriated. Reinhold Niebuhr
Reinhold Niebuhr
Karl Paul Reinhold Niebuhr was an American theologian and commentator on public affairs. Starting as a leftist minister in the 1920s indebted to theological liberalism, he shifted to the new Neo-Orthodox theology in the 1930s, explaining how the sin of pride created evil in the world...
gave it a positive review in The Nation
The Nation
The Nation is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States. The periodical, devoted to politics and culture, is self-described as "the flagship of the left." Founded on July 6, 1865, It is published by The Nation Company, L.P., at 33 Irving Place, New York City.The Nation...
magazine. But not all of Regnery's output during the period was so "highbrow," as one of the company's better sellers in 1975 was SuperJock: The loud, frantic, nonstop world of a rock radio DJ
Larry Lujack
Larry Lujack , a Top 40 Music radio disc jockey, was known for his world-weary sarcastic style, "Klunk Letter of the Day" and darkly humorous "Animal Stories" along with "sidekick Little Tommy", and "Cheap Trashy Show Biz Report." He was also referred to as Superjock, Lawrence of Chicago, Uncle...
by popular WCFL
WMVP
WMVP is the callsign of a commercial radio station in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It is owned by ABC. Its transmitter is located in Downers Grove. The station broadcasts live sports talk, both locally and nationally. Daily programming consists of talk shows that are both national and local...
disc jockey Larry Lujack
Larry Lujack
Larry Lujack , a Top 40 Music radio disc jockey, was known for his world-weary sarcastic style, "Klunk Letter of the Day" and darkly humorous "Animal Stories" along with "sidekick Little Tommy", and "Cheap Trashy Show Biz Report." He was also referred to as Superjock, Lawrence of Chicago, Uncle...
.
The company was founded as a nonprofit corporation. Regnery later wrote that it was initially organized that way, "not because I had any ideological objection to profits, but because, as it seemed to me then, and does still, in matters of excellence the market is a poor judge. The books that are most needed are often precisely those that will have only a modest sale." The Internal Revenue Service
Internal Revenue Service
The Internal Revenue Service is the revenue service of the United States federal government. The agency is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury, and is under the immediate direction of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue...
forced the company to be reorganized as a for-profit concern on March 1, 1948. Regnery hired his first few employees that year.
Conservative and anti-Communist books
Regnery published some of the first and most important books of the postwar American conservative movement. "[I]t was a measure of the grip that liberal-minded editors had on American publishing at the time that Regnery, which was founded in 1947, was one of only two houses known to be sympathetic to conservative authors", according to Henry Regnery's 1996 obituary in The New York TimesThe New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
.
In 1951, Regnery published God and Man at Yale
God and Man at Yale
God and Man at Yale: The Superstitions of “Academic Freedom” is a book published in 1951 by William F. Buckley, Jr., who eventually became a leading voice in the American conservative movement in the latter half of the twentieth century....
, the first book written by William F. Buckley, Jr.
William F. Buckley, Jr.
William Frank Buckley, Jr. was an American conservative author and commentator. He founded the political magazine National Review in 1955, hosted 1,429 episodes of the television show Firing Line from 1966 until 1999, and was a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist. His writing was noted for...
. At that time, Regnery had a close affiliation with 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...
and published classics for the Great Books
Great Books
Great Books refers primarily to a group of books that tradition, and various institutions and authorities, have regarded as constituting or best expressing the foundations of Western culture ; derivatively the term also refers to a curriculum or method of education based around a list of such books...
series at the University, but he lost the contract as a result of publishing Buckley's book.
In 1953, Regnery published The Conservative Mind, a seminal book for Post World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
American conservatism, as well as books by Albert J. Nock, James J. Kilpatrick
James J. Kilpatrick
James Jackson Kilpatrick was an American editorial columnist and grammarian. He was a legal abstractionist, a social conservative, and an economic libertarian according to Harvard ....
, James Burnham
James Burnham
James Burnham was an American popular political theorist, best known for his influential work The Managerial Revolution, published in 1941. Burnham was a radical activist in the 1930s and an important factional leader of the American Trotskyist movement. In later years he left Marxism and produced...
and Whittaker Chambers
Whittaker Chambers
Whittaker Chambers was born Jay Vivian Chambers and also known as David Whittaker Chambers , was an American writer and editor. After being a Communist Party USA member and Soviet spy, he later renounced communism and became an outspoken opponent later testifying in the perjury and espionage trial...
. He also published paperback editions of literary works by authors such as novelist 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...
and the poets T. S. Eliot
T. S. Eliot
Thomas Stearns "T. S." Eliot OM was a playwright, literary critic, and arguably the most important English-language poet of the 20th century. Although he was born an American he moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 and was naturalised as a British subject in 1927 at age 39.The poem that made his...
and Ezra Pound
Ezra Pound
Ezra Weston Loomis Pound was an American expatriate poet and critic and a major figure in the early modernist movement in poetry...
.
In 1954, Regnery published McCarthy and His Enemies by William F. Buckley and L. Brent Bozell Jr.
L. Brent Bozell Jr.
Leo Brent Bozell, Jr. was an American conservative activist and Catholic writer.-Family:His father was Leo B. Bozell the co-founder of Bozell Worldwide. His wife was Patricia Lee Buckley, sister of William F. Buckley, and their 10 children include L...
"Although Mr. Buckley [...] had criticized the senator for 'gross exaggerations', Mr. McCarthy said he would not dispute the merits of the book with the authors", according to a news article in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
. While criticizing McCarthy, the book was sympathetic to him (and in fact was harsher on McCarthy's critics than it was on the senator for making false allegations), and McCarthy attended a reception for the authors.
In the early 1950s, Regnery published two books by Robert Welch
Robert W. Welch Jr.
Robert Henry Winborne Welch Jr. was an American businessman, political activist and author. He was independently wealthy following his retirement and used that wealth to sponsor anti-communist causes. He co-founded the conservative group the John Birch Society in 1958 and tightly controlled it...
, who went on to found the John Birch Society
John Birch Society
The John Birch Society is an American political advocacy group that supports anti-communism, limited government, a Constitutional Republic and personal freedom. It has been described as radical right-wing....
in 1958. In May God Forgive Us, Welch criticized influential foreign-policy analysts and policymakers and accused many of working to further Communism as part of a conspiracy. In 1954, Regnery published Welch's biography of John Birch
John Birch
John Birch may refer to:* John Birch , soldier in the English Civil War and MP for Leominster* John Birch , nephew of Col...
, an American Baptist missionary in China who was killed by Chinese Communists after he became a U.S. intelligence officer in World War II.
Other works
Regnery was the first publisher of the psychological biography SybilSybil (book)
Sybil is a 1973 book by Flora Rheta Schreiber about the treatment of Sybil Dorsett for dissociative identity disorder by her psychoanalyst, Cornelia B...
, which was reprinted numerous times by larger publishers, and eventually made into a film. They also published Coal Miner's Daughter, Loretta Lynn
Loretta Lynn
Loretta Lynn is an American country music singer-songwriter, author and philanthropist. Born in Butcher Hollow, Kentucky to a coal miner father, Lynn married at 13 years old, was a mother soon after, and moved to Washington with her husband, Oliver Lynn. Their marriage was sometimes tumultuous; he...
's autobiography, in 1976, which was the basis for the film
Coal Miner's Daughter
Coal Miner's Daughter is a 1980 American biographical film which tells the story of country music icon Loretta Lynn. It stars Sissy Spacek in her Academy Award for Best Actress winning role, Tommy Lee Jones, Beverly D'Angelo and Levon Helm, and was directed by Michael Apted.-Background:The film was...
.
Regnery Publishing Inc.
In the 1980s, Alfred S. Regnery, son of Henry Regnery, took control of the company. In the 1990s, the Regnery family sold the publishing company to Phillips Publishing International, which put the book publishing company into its Eagle Publishing subsidiary, which also publishes the weekly Human EventsHuman Events
Human Events is a weekly American conservative magazine. It takes its name from the first sentence of the United States Declaration of Independence...
. Alfred Regnery has subsequently left his post as President of Regnery Publishing to become the publisher of The American Spectator
The American Spectator
The American Spectator is a conservative U.S. monthly magazine covering news and politics, edited by R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr. and published by the non-profit American Spectator Foundation. From its founding in 1967 until the late 1980s, the small-circulation magazine featured the writings of authors...
magazine. His books are now published by Threshold Editions
Threshold Editions
Threshold Editions is an imprint of Simon & Schuster — the publishing division of CBS Corporation — specializing in conservative non-fiction. Louise Burke is the publisher, Anthony Ziccardi is the deputy publisher, and the imprint's senior editors include Mitchell Ivers, Kathy Sagan,...
, the conservative imprint
Imprint
In the publishing industry, an imprint can mean several different things:* As a piece of bibliographic information about a book, it refers to the name and address of the book's publisher and its date of publication as given at the foot or on the verso of its title page.* It can mean a trade name...
of CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
-owned Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster, Inc., a division of CBS Corporation, is a publisher founded in New York City in 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. It is one of the four largest English-language publishers, alongside Random House, Penguin and HarperCollins...
which is run by Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
strategist Mary Matalin
Mary Matalin
Mary Joe Matalin is an American political consultant, well known for her work with the Republican Party. She was an assistant to President George W. Bush and counselor to Vice President Dick Cheney until 2003. Matalin has been chief editor of Threshold Editions, a conservative publishing imprint...
. He still holds a seat on the Regnery Board of Directors. Pat Sajak
Pat Sajak
Pat Sajak is a television personality, former weatherman, actor and talk show host, best known as the host of the American television game show Wheel of Fortune.-Early life:...
also is a member of the board. Alex Novak, son of political columnist Robert Novak
Robert Novak
Robert David Sanders "Bob" Novak was an American syndicated columnist, journalist, television personality, author, and conservative political commentator. After working for two newspapers before serving for the U.S. Army in the Korean War, he became a reporter for the Associated Press and then for...
, is director of marketing.
Book subjects
Regnery has become noteworthy, apart from authors of its books, because of its penchant for political controversy with a high profile on the national stage. It recently launched a series of books titled "The Politically Incorrect GuideThe Politically Incorrect Guide
The Politically Incorrect Guide is a book series by Regnery Publishing presenting conservative or what the publishers of the books consider, politically incorrect beliefs on various topics. Each book is written by a different author and generally presents a conservative or libertarian viewpoint on...
to" (multiple subjects), confronting what it conceives to be the assumptions of the nation's elites, sometimes negatively described as political correctness
Political correctness
Political correctness is a term which denotes language, ideas, policies, and behavior seen as seeking to minimize social and institutional offense in occupational, gender, racial, cultural, sexual orientation, certain other religions, beliefs or ideologies, disability, and age-related contexts,...
. The Politically Incorrect Guides have often been referred to by their backronym
Backronym
A backronym or bacronym is a phrase constructed purposely, such that an acronym can be formed to a specific desired word. Backronyms may be invented with serious or humorous intent, or may be a type of false or folk etymology....
PIGS by supporters and opponents alike (Regnery's logo for the series features a pig's head). Former Regnery officials have described its marketing strategy as getting its conservative books condemned by the New York Times, generating very large sales to conservatives as a result.
Regnery books have often been the subject of controversy.
Regnery published Unlimited Access: An FBI Agent Inside The Clinton White House (1996) by Gary Aldrich
Gary Aldrich
Gary Aldrich is a former FBI agent and author from Amsterdam, New York. His wife Nina is also an ex-FBI agent, and they have 3 children. Gary graduated from Miami Dade College. He founded the Patrick Henry Center for Individual Liberty, whose aim is, "promoting the U.S...
, which Max Blumenthal
Max Blumenthal
Max Blumenthal is an American author, journalist, and blogger. A senior writer for The Daily Beast, he is the author of the New York Times bestselling book Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement that Shattered the Party....
, writing in The American Prospect
The American Prospect
The American Prospect is a monthly American political magazine dedicated to American liberalism. Based in Washington, DC, The American Prospect is a journal "of liberal ideas, committed to a just society, an enriched democracy, and effective liberal politics" which focuses on United States politics...
, claimed "... painted images of Hillary Clinton hanging crack pipes on the White House Christmas tree".http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?articleId=8442 Aldrich had written about an incident where Ms. Clinton ordered a batch of student artwork hung on the tree without examining it for suitability.http://books.google.com/books?id=TB7LLC_YwZIC&pg=PA105&lpg=PA105&dq=%22Three+French+hens+were+French+kissing+in+a+menage+a+trois%22&source=web&ots=dKgQsPejfy&sig=ZoMAQR6fJnCSKJPs_OPaM5RnUqI&hl=en
In June 2004, Regnery agreed to publish Unfit for Command by former Swift Boat Veteran John O'Neill and veteran author Dr. Jerome Corsi
Jerome Corsi
Jerome Robert Corsi is an American author, political commentator and conspiracy theorist best known for his two New York Times bestselling books: The Obama Nation and Unfit for Command...
. Television advertisements about Presidential candidate John Kerry
John Kerry
John Forbes Kerry is the senior United States Senator from Massachusetts, the 10th most senior U.S. Senator and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2004 presidential election, but lost to former President George W...
's criticisms of U.S. soldiers and recounting of his own military record in Vietnam were unveiled nationwide at about the same time as Unfit for Command was released, creating shortages of the book in bookstores nationwide. The book exceeded 1 million copies in print.
The Kerry campaign demanded that Regnery cease publication and distribution of Unfit for Command, saying there were inaccuracies in the book about Kerry's war record and anti-war activities at home. Regnery responded by offering to print and distribute a reply book by Kerry, suggesting "Winter Soldier" on the same subject matter that Kerry authored in the 1970s.
In describing Regnery's position in the publishing world, Nicholas Confessore
Nicholas Confessore
Nicholas Confessore is a reporter on the Metropolitan Desk of The New York Times covering Albany. He was previously an editor at The Washington Monthly and a staff writer for The American Prospect...
, then writer for the liberal American Prospect, said the following:
- Welcome to the world of Regnery Publishing—lifestyle press for conservatives, preferred printer of presidential hopefuls, and venerable publisher of books for the culture wars. Call it—gracelessly but more accurately—a medium-sized, loosely linked network of conservative types, with few degrees of separation and similar political aims. Just don't call it a conspiracy.
Author royalties
In November 2007, Jerome Corsi, Bill GertzBill Gertz
Bill Gertz is an American editor, columnist and reporter for The Washington Times. He is the author of six books and writes a weekly column on the Pentagon and national security issues called "Inside the Ring". During the administration of Bill Clinton Gertz was known for his stories exposing...
, Robert (Buzz) Patterson
Dereliction of Duty (2003 book)
Dereliction of Duty: The Eyewitness Account of How Bill Clinton Endangered America's Long-Term National Security is a book written by Robert "Buzz" Patterson, who was one of the military aides responsible for carrying the so-called "nuclear football" during part of the Clinton administration. It...
, Joel Mowbray and Richard Miniter
Richard Miniter
Richard Miniter is an investigative journalist and author of two New York Times best-selling books, Losing bin Laden and Shadow War....
--five authors whose works have been published by Regnery--filed a lawsuit
Lawsuit
A lawsuit or "suit in law" is a civil action brought in a court of law in which a plaintiff, a party who claims to have incurred loss as a result of a defendant's actions, demands a legal or equitable remedy. The defendant is required to respond to the plaintiff's complaint...
against the company. It claimed that Regnery "orchestrates and participates in a fraudulent, deceptively concealed and self-dealing
Self-dealing
Self-dealing is the conduct of a trustee, an attorney, a corporate officer, or other fiduciary that consists of taking advantage of his position in a transaction and acting for his own interests rather than for the interests of the beneficiaries of the trust, corporate shareholders, or his clients...
scheme to divert book sales away from retail outlets and to wholly owned subsidiary organizations" of Eagle Publishing, Regnery's parent corporation. Miniter said that meant that although he received about $4.25 a copy when his books sold in a bookstore or through an online retailer, he only earned about 10 cents a copy when his books sold through the Conservative Book Club or other Eagle-owned channels.
On January 30, 2008, a federal judge dismissed all eight counts of the lawsuit because the authors had signed contracts with Regnery which included mandatory arbitration clause in their contracts. The authors have sought arbitration with the company.
External links
- Official website
- Human Events' website
- Eagle Publishing's website
- Hillary Was Right An article which critiques Regnery Publishing's background by Nicholas Confessore at The American ProspectThe American ProspectThe American Prospect is a monthly American political magazine dedicated to American liberalism. Based in Washington, DC, The American Prospect is a journal "of liberal ideas, committed to a just society, an enriched democracy, and effective liberal politics" which focuses on United States politics...
, January 17, 2000 - The operative An article about Robert NovakRobert NovakRobert David Sanders "Bob" Novak was an American syndicated columnist, journalist, television personality, author, and conservative political commentator. After working for two newspapers before serving for the U.S. Army in the Korean War, he became a reporter for the Associated Press and then for...
's ties to Regnery Publishing by Mary Jacoby at Salon.com, October 1, 2004