John Calder

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John Calder (born 1927) is a Canadian and Scottish publisher who founded Calder Publishing in 1949.

[edit] Biography

John Calder was a friend of Samuel Beckett , and was responsible for initially publishing 85% of the Beckett available today. During the 1950s, he published the translated work of Chekhov, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Goethe and Zola, among others, and was the first publisher to make William S. Burroughs available in the United Kingdom. He was also responsible for a Writer's festival and conference in Edinburgh in the 1950s, uniting writers from all over the world. From 1963 to 1975, Calder was in partnership with Marion Boyars, and the company was known as Calder and Boyars.^[1]

The imprint continues to publish Howard Barker, Tim Waterstone, and other figures of literature both past and present. In 2002, John Calder opened the Calder Bookshop in London. In 2006, Lou MacLoughlan and Louise Milne produced the documentary John Calder: A Life in Publishing commemorating his life.

In April 2007 it was announced that John Calder is passing the business on to Alma Books/Oneworld Classics; the list will retain his name,^[2] although the rights to the non-theatrical work of Beckett have been acquired by Faber.