Introducing... and ...For Beginners book series

*... For Beginners*
Country	England United States
Language	English
Publisher	Writers and Readers Publishing Cooperative Writers and Readers Publishing, Inc. For Beginners, LLC
Published	1975–present
Media type	Paperback

*Introducing...*
Country	England
Language	English
Publisher	Icon Books
Published	1992–present
Media type	Paperback
Preceded by	... For Beginners

The Introducing... series and the ...For Beginners series are two book series of graphic guides covering key thinkers and topics in philosophy, psychology and science, and many others in politics, religion, cultural studies, linguistics and other areas. Books are written by an expert in the field and illustrated, comic-book style, by a leading graphic artist.

Background

The two series have their origins in two Spanish-language books, Cuba para principiantes (1960) and Marx para principiantes (1972) by the Mexican political cartoonist and writer Rius, pocket books which put their content over in a humorous comic strip way but with a serious underlying purpose. An English-language version of the first book was published in 1970 by Leviathan Press of San Francisco and Pathfinder Press of New York, to no particularly great impact. However, when Richard Appignanesi edited the first English edition of Marx for Beginners (1976) for the London-based Writers and Readers Publishing Cooperative, of which he was a co-founding member of with Glenn Thompson and others, it was soon clear that the collective had a hit on their hands.^[1]^[2] With a successful format identified, further "... for Beginners" titles soon began to appear.

A schism developed at the start of the 1980s, and the Writers and Readers Cooperative broke up in 1984. Glenn Thompson, shuttling between the UK and the USA, formed two new companies, Writers and Readers Limited^[3] in London, and Writers and Readers Publishing, Inc., in New York. Under these company names, Thompson continued the ... For Beginners series, in several cases commissioning new authors to create replacement books for those being published in Britain.

In 1992, Appignanesi, who had been the first editor for the series and had also written several of the titles, joined the new London-based publisher Icon Books as a co-founder, under whose imprint he re-published several of the titles and continued to publish and expand a British version of the series. This led to a number of examples where the two ranges were publishing two different books on the same subject, each with exactly the same title. (Examples of this include books on Jacques Derrida and quantum theory.)

Not all international versions were affected by the split. The Argentinian publisher Era Naciente managed to stay on good terms with both sides, continuing to translate titles from both ranges into their Spanish-language series Libros para Principiantes alongside their own original commissions.^[4]^[5]

In 2001, Glenn Thompson died^[6] and most of the ... For Beginner titles went out of print. In 2007, a consortium of investors formed For Beginners, LLC—they revived the series, reprinted back issues, and promised to publish between six and nine new issues each year.

Books in the ...For Beginners series

Frequent contributors to the Writers and Readers' ... For Beginners titles include cartoonists Donald D. Palmer, writers David Cogswell and Jim Powell; and illustrators Phil Evans, Joe Lee, Borin Van Loon, and Susan Willmarth. The line's most enduring titles are Marx for Beginners (1976), Freud for Beginners (1979), Einstein for Beginners (1979), and Darwin for Beginners (1982).^[7]

Title	ISBN	Writer(s)	Illustrator	Pages	Publication Date	Notes
African History	9780863161445	Herb Boyd	Shey Wolvek-Pfister	128	01991-01-01-00001991
Anarchism	9781934389324	Marcos Mayer	Hector A. Sanguillano	176	02008-01-01-00002008
Arabs and Israel	9780863161612	Ron David	Susan David	224	01993-01-01-00001993
Art Theory^[8]	978-1934389478	Richard Osborne	Dan Sturgis	192	02009-01-01-00002009
Astronomy	9780863169991	Jeff Becan	Sarah Becan	152	02004-01-01-00002004
Ayn Rand^[9]	9781934389379	Andrew Bernstein	Owen Brozman	112	02009-08-01-0000Aug 2009
Barack Obama^[10]^[11]^[12]^[13]	9781934389447	Bob Neer	Joe Lee	128	02009-01-01-00002009
Ben Franklin	9781934389485	Tim E. Ogline	Tim E. Ogline	160	02013-01-01-00002013
Black History	9781934389195	Denise Dennis	Susan Willmarth	192	01984-01-01-00001984
Black Holocaust	9781934389034	S.E. Anderson	Vanessa Holley	192	01995-01-01-00001995
Black Women	9780863161476	S. Pearl Sharp	Beverly Hall	192	01993-01-01-00001993
Capitalism	0906495504	Robert Lekachman	Borin Van Loon	176	01981-01-01-00001981
Chomsky	9780863162336	David Cogswell	Paul Gordon	160	01996-01-01-00001996
Cuba	9780904613414	Rius	Rius	160	01975-01-01-00001975	Translated from Cuba para principiantes (1960)
Dada and Surrealism	9781934389003	Elsa Bethanis, Peter Bethanis	Joe Lee	128	02006-01-01-00002006
Dante	9780863162800	Joe Lee	Joe Lee	180	01999-01-01-00001999
Darwin	9781848311176	Jonathan Miller	Borin Van Loon	176	01982-01-01-00001982	Republished by Icon in 1992
Deconstruction^[14]	9780863169984	Jim Powell	Joe Lee	168	02005-01-01-00002005
Democracy^[15]	9781934389362	Robert Cavalier	Reuben Negrón	128	02009-01-01-00002009
Derrida	9780863161391	Jim Powell	Van Howell	192	01996-01-01-00001996	Different from Derrida for Beginners (Icon, 1996) by Jeff Collins, Bill Mayblin, and Richard Appignanesi
DNA	9780863160233	Israel Rosenfield, Edward Ziff	Borin Van Loon	224	01983-01-01-00001983
Ecology	9780906495797	Stephen Croall	William Rankin	174	01981-01-01-00001981	Republished by Icon in 1992
Eastern Philosophy	9780863162824	Jim Powell	Joe Lee	192	02000-01-01-00002000
Economists	9780906495520	Bernard Canavan	Bernard Canavan	176	01983-01-01-00001983
Einstein	9780906386057	Joseph Schwartz	Michael McGuinness	174	01979-01-01-00001979	Republished by Icon in 1992
Elvis	9780049270114	Jill Pearlman	Wayne White	160	01986-01-01-00001986
Existentialism^[16]^[17]	978-1-934389-21-8	David Cogswell	Joe Lee	192	02008-10-01-0000Oct 2008
FDR and the New Deal	978-1-934389-50-8	Paul Buhle	Sabrina Jones	176	02010-01-01-00002010
Foucault^[18]	9781934389126	Lydia Alix Fillingham	Moshe Susser	160	01993-01-01-00001993	Different from Introducing Foucault (1997) by Chris Horrocks, Zoran Jevtic, and Richard Appignanesi
Freud	9781840468519	Richard Appignanesi	Oscar Zarate	176	01979-01-01-00001979	Republished as Introducing Freud (Icon, Sept. 2007)
Gender & Sexuality	9781934389690	Jaimee Garbacik	Jeffrey Lewis	216	02013-01-01-00002013
Gestalt	978-0-863162-58-9	Sergio Sinay	Pablo Blasberg	176	01998-01-01-00001998
Global Warming^[19]	978-1-934389-27-0	Dean Goodwin	Joe Lee	144	02008-12-01-0000Dec 2008
Greek Mythology	9781934389836	Joe Lee	Joe Lee	196	02013-01-01-00002013
Heidegger	9780863161728	Eric Charles Lemay	Jennifer A. Pitts	128	01994-01-01-00001994
History of Cinema	978-0-863162-75-6	Jarek Kupść	Jarek Kupść	382	01998-01-01-00001998
History of Opera	9781934389805	Ron David	Sara Woolley	168	02013-01-01-00002013
Jane Austen	9781934389614	Robert Dryden	Joe Lee	170	02011-01-01-00002011
Jewish Holocaust	9780863161827	Stuart Justman	Rebecca Shope	120	01995-01-01-00001995
Kierkegaard	9780863161926	Donald D. Palmer	Donald D. Palmer	160	01996-01-01-00001996
Lacan	9780863162275	Phillip Hill	David Leach	176	01997-01-01-00001997	Different from Introducing Lacan (Icon, 2000) by Darian Leader and Judy Groves
Lenin	9780904613674	Richard Appignanesi	Oscar Zárate	172	01977-01-01-00001977
Linguistics	978-1-934389-28-7	W. Terrence Gordon	Susan Willmarth	128	02008-01-01-00002008
London	0-86316-078-6	Nita Clarke	Phil Evans	176	01984-01-01-00001984	"A political history of London"
Malcolm X	9780863161469	Bernard Aquina Doctor	Bernard Aquina Doctor	192	01992-01-01-00001992
Marx	978-0-846702-70-2	Rius	Rius	156	01976-01-01-00001976	Translated from Marx para principiantes (1972)
Marx's Kapital	9780906495827	David N. Smith	Phil Evans	192	01982-01-01-00001982
McLuhan	9780863162312	W. Terrence Gordon	Susan Willmarth	176	01997-01-01-00001997
Muhammed	9781848310841	Ziauddin Sardar	Zafar Abbas Malik	176	01994-01-01-00001994	Simultaneously published as Introducing Muhammed (Icon, 1994) and then republished as Introducing Islam (Icon, 2001)
Nietzsche	9780863161186	Marc Sautet	Patrick Boussignac	192	01990-01-01-00001990	Translated from the French Nietzsche pour débutants (1986)
Nuclear Power	9780906495629	Stephen Croall	Kaianders Sempler	176	01985-01-01-00001985
The Olympics	978-1-934389-33-1	Brandon Toropov	Joe Lee	176	02008-06-01-0000Jun 2008
Orwell	9780863160660	David N. Smith	Michael Mosher	192	01984-01-01-00001984
Paul Robeson	978-1934389812	Paul Von Blum, Elizabeth Von Notias	Ramsess	144	02013-01-01-00002013
Philosophy	9780863161575	Richard Osborne	Ralph Edney	192	01992-01-01-00001992	Different from Introducing Philosophy (Icon, Sept. 2007) by Dave Robinson and Judy Groves
Picasso	978-1-874166-29-0	Andrew Brighton	Andrzej Klimowski	171	01992-02-01-0000Feb 1992
Plato	9780863160394	Robert Cavalier	Eric Lurio	160	01990-01-01-00001990
Poetry	978-1-934389-46-1	Margaret Chapman, Kathleen Welton	Reuben Negrón	160	02010-01-01-00002010
Postmodernism	9780863161889	Jim Powell	Joe Lee	163	01998-01-01-00001998	Different from Introducing Postmodernism (Icon, Sept. 2007) by Richard Appignanesi, Chris Garratt, Ziauddin Sardar, and Patrick Curry
Psychiatry	978-0-863161-66-7	David Brizer	Ricardo Castañeda	176	01993-01-01-00001993
Relativity and Quantum Physics	978-1-934389-42-3	Steven L. Manly	Steven Fournier	144	02009-11-01-0000Nov 2009	Different from Quantum Theory for Beginners (Icon, 1996) by J.P. McEvoy & Oscar Zárate
Rudolf Steiner and Anthroposophy	978-0-863162-86-2	Lia Tummer	Horacio Lato	192	02001-05-01-0000May 2001
Sartre	9780863161773	Donald D. Palmer	Donald D. Palmer	160	01995-01-01-00001995
Shakespeare^[20]	9780863162282	Brandon Toropov	Joe Lee	224	01997-01-01-00001997
Structuralism and Poststructuralism	9780863161933	Donald D. Palmer	Donald D. Palmer	160	01995-01-01-00001995
Trotsky	9780906495285	Tariq Ali	Phil Evans	176	01980-01-01-00001980
U.S. Constitution	9780863161261	Steven Bachman	Joel Pett	172	01984-01-01-00001984	Re-issued in 2012 with art by Jorge Díaz
Unions	9781934389775	David Cogswell	C.M. Butzer	168	02012-01-01-00002012
Women's History	9781934389607	Bonnie J. Morris	Phil Evans	200	02012-01-01-00002012
Zen	9780863161179	Judith Blackstone, Zoran Josipovic	Donald D. Palmer	176	01985-01-01-00001985
Zinn	978-1-934389-40-9	David Cogswell	Joe Lee	176	02009-08-01-0000Aug 2009

Books in the Introducing... series

The Icon Books series debuted in 1992 with five ... For Beginner titles: two originals (Feminism and Jung) and three reprints of Writers and Readers books (Darwin, Ecology, and Einstein). One of the more notable Icon Books titles was Kafka for Beginners (1993), by David Zane Mairowitz and famed cartoonist Robert Crumb.

After producing more ... For Beginner titles throughout the 1990s, the situation was eventually resolved in 1999 by the Icon series being rebranded as the Introducing... series, with titles starting with that word instead of ending "for beginners".

Beginning in 2008, Icon's new titles and reissues played down the "Introducing..." to the level of a series name, and the titles were instead prominently subtitled "A Graphic Guide."

Frequent contributors to the Icon Press titles include writers Richard Appignanesi, Nigel Benson, Dave Robinson, and Ziauddin Sardar; and illustrators Ralph Edney, Chris Garratt, Judy Groves, Bill Mayblin, Piero, Borin Van Loon, and Oscar Zárate.

Title	ISBN	Writer(s)	Artist(s)	Pages	Publication Date	Previously published as...
Aesthetics	9781848311671	Christopher Kul-Want	Piero	176	02010-01-01-00002010
Alain Badiou	9781848316652	Michael J. Kelly	Piero	176	02014-01-01-00002014
Anthropology	9781848311688	Merryl Wyn Davies	Piero	176	02010-01-01-00002010
Aristotle	9781874166368	Rupert Woodfin	Judy Groves	176	01996-01-01-00001996	Baudrillard for Beginners
Artificial Intelligence	9781848312142	Henry Brighton	Howard Selina	176	02012-01-01-00002012
Barthes	9781848312043	Philip Thody	Piero	176	02011-01-01-00002011
Baudrillard	9781874166368	Chris Horrocks	Zoran Jevtic	176	01996-01-01-00001996	Baudrillard for Beginners
Bertrand Russell	9781848313026	Dave Robinson	Judy Groces	176	02011-01-01-00002011
Buddha	9781848310117	Jane Hope	Borin Van Loon	176	01994-01-01-00001994	Buddha for Beginners
Camus	9781840460001	David Mariowitz	Alain Korkos	176	01998-01-01-00001998
Capitalism	9781848310551	Dan Cryan, Sharron Shatil	Piero	176	02009-04-01-0000Apr 2009
Chaos	9781848310131	Ziauddin Sardar	Iwona Abrams	176	02004-01-01-00002004
Consciousness	9781840461152	David Papineau	Howard Selina	176	02000-01-01-00002000
Critical Theory	9781848310599	Stuart Sim	Borin Van Loon	176	02001-01-01-00002001
Cultural Studies	9781840460742	Ziauddin Sardar	Borin Van Loon	176	01997-01-01-00001997	Cultural Studies for Beginners
Darwin	9781848311176	Jonathan Miller	Borin Van Loon	176	01992-01-01-00001992	Darwin for Beginners (Writers and Readers, 1982)
Derrida	9781874166382	Jeff Collins	Bill Mayblin	172	01996-01-01-00001996	Derrida for Beginners (distinct from Derrida for Beginners by Jim Powell & Van Howell, Writers and Readers, 1997)
Eastern Philosophy	9781840461503	Richard Osborne	Borin Van Loon	176	02000-01-01-00002000	Ancient Eastern Philosophy for Beginners (Icon, 1996)
Ecology	9781874166030	Stephen Croall	William Rankin	174	01992-01-01-00001992	Ecology for Beginners (Writers and Readers, 1981)
Einstein	9781874166023	Joseph Schwartz	Michael McGuinness	174	01992-01-01-00001992	Einstein for Beginners (Writers and Readers, 1979)
Ethics	9781848310087	Dave Robinson	Chris Garratt	176	01996-01-01-00001996	Ethics for Beginners
Evolutionary Psychology	9781848311824	Dylan Evans	Oscar Zárate	176	01999-01-01-00001999
Existentialism	9781840462661	Richard Appignanesi	Oscar Zárate	176	02001-01-01-00002001
Feminism	9781848311213	Cathia Jenainati	Judy Groves	176	02007-01-01-00002007
Feminism	9781874166047	Susan Alice Watkins	Marisa Rueda, Marta Rodriguez	176	01992-01-01-00001992	Feminism for Beginners
Foucault	9781848310605	Christopher Horrocks	Zoran Jevtic	176	02004-01-01-00002004
Fractals	9781848310872	Nigel Lesmoir-Gordon, Will Rood	Ralph Edney	176	02000-01-01-00002000	Introducing Fractal Geometry
Freud	9781840468519	Richard Appignanesi	Oscar Zárate	176	02007-09-01-0000Sep 2007	Freud for Beginners (Writers and Readers, 1979)
Genetics	978-1848312951	Steve Jones	Borin Van Loon	176	02011-01-01-00002011
Hinduism	9781848311145	Vinay Lal	Borin Van Loon	176	02001-01-01-00002001
Islam	9781848310841	Ziauddin Sardar	Zafar Abbas Malik	176	02001-01-01-00002001	Muhammed for Beginners (Writers and Readers, 1994) Introducing Muhammad (1994)
Kafka	9781840461225	David Zane Mairowitz	Robert Crumb	176	01993-01-01-00001993	Kafka for Beginners
Jung	9781848310100	Maggie Hyde	Michael McGuinness	176	01992-01-01-00001992	Jung for Beginners
Keynesian Economics	9781840461572	Peter Pugh	Chris Garratt	176	01993-01-01-00001993	Keynes for Beginners
Lacan	9781840461688	Darian Leader	Judy Groves	176	02000-01-01-00002000
Linguistics	9781848310889	R. L. Trask	Bill Mayblin	176	02000-01-01-00002000
Logic	9781848310124	Dan Cryan, Sharron Shatil	Bill Mayblin	176	02001-01-01-00002001
Marxism	9781848310582	Rupert Woodfin	Oscar Zárate	176	02004-01-01-00002004
Mathematics	9781840460117	Ziauddin Sardar	Borin Van Loon	176	01999-01-01-00001999
Media Studies	9781840461145	Ziauddin Sardar	Borin Van Loon	176	02000-01-01-00002000
Mind & Brain	9781840468540	Angus Gellatly	Oscar Zárate	176	01998-01-01-00001998	Mind & Brain for Beginners
Modernism	9781848311169	Chris Rodrigues	Chris Garratt	176	02001-01-01-00002001
Nietzsche	9781848310094	Laurence Gane	Piero	176	02005-01-01-00002005
Philosophy	9781840468533	Dave Robinson	Judy Groves	176	02007-09-01-0000Sep 2007
Political Philosophy	9781840464504	Dave Robinson	Judy Groves	176	02003-01-01-00002003
Postmodernism	9781840468496	Richard Appignanesi, Chris Garratt, Ziauddin Sardar	Patrick Curry	192	02007-09-01-0000Sep 2007
Psychiatry	9781840465372	Nigel C. Benson	Piero	176	02004-01-01-00002004
Psychology	9781840468526	Nigel C. Benson	Nigel C. Benson	176	01998-01-01-00001998	Psychology for Beginners
Psychotherapy	9781840464412	Nigel C. Benson	Borin Van Loon	176	02003-01-01-00002003
Quantum Theory	9781840468502	J.P. McEvoy	Oscar Zárate	176	01996-01-01-00001996	Quantum Theory for Beginners
Relativity	9781848310575	Bruce Bassett	Ralph Edney	176	02002-01-01-00002002
Science Studies	978-1840463583	Ziauddin Sardar	Borin Van Loon	176	01998-01-01-00001998
Shakespeare	9781848311152	Nick Groom	Piero	176	02001-01-01-00002001
Slavoj Žižek	9781848310575	Christopher Kul-Want	Piero	176	02011-11-01-0000Nov 2011
Sociology	9781848310858	Richard Osborne	Borin Van Loon	176	01996-01-01-00001996	Sociology for Beginners
Statistics	9781848310568	Eileen Magnello	Borin Van Loon	176	02009-09-01-0000Sep 2009
Stephen Hawking	9781848310940	J.P. McEvoy	Oscar Zárate	176	01995-01-01-00001995	Stephen Hawking for Beginners
Time	9781848311206	Craig Callender	Ralph Edney	176	02001-01-01-00002001
Trotsky	9781840460018	Tariq Ali	Phil Evans	176	01998-01-01-00001998	Trotsky for Beginners (Writers and Readers, 1998)
Walter Benjamin	9781848316928	Howard Caygill, Alex Coles,	Andrzej Klimowski	176	02014-01-01-00002014
Wittgenstein	9781848310865	John M. Heaton	Judy Groves	176	01994-01-01-00001994	Wittgenstein for Beginners

References

↑ The history of Introducing books, introducingbooks.com. Accessed 2011-01-29.
↑ Our Story, For Beginners books. Accessed 2011-01-29.
↑ "Writers and Readers Limited," DueDil.com Accessed Jan. 12, 2015.
↑ David, Ron. "Writers & Readers' Beginners Books,", RonDavid.net. [dead link]
↑ Libros para Principiantes website (Spanish) Era Naciente. Accessed Jan. 12, 2015.
↑ Berger, John and Busby, Margaret. "Glenn Thompson: A pioneering black publisher, he saw books as a window for opening the minds of the oppressed," The Guardian (Sept. 12, 2001).
↑ MacDonald, H. (2003), "Pantheon re-offers 'for beginners' series," Publishers Weekly, 250(51), 26.
↑ Boslaugh, Sarah (24 September 2009). "Art Theory For Beginners Review". Playback:stl (St. Louis). Retrieved 23 June 2010.
↑ Boslaugh, Sarah (9 July 2009). "Ayn Rand For Beginners Review". Playback:stl (St. Louis). Retrieved 23 June 2010.
↑ Boslaugh, Sarah (18 August 2008). "Barack Obama For Beginners: An Essential Guide Review". Playback:stl (St. Louis). Retrieved 23 June 2010.
↑ Gardner, Jan (20 July 2008). "Barack Barage". The Boston Globe (Boston). Retrieved 23 June 2010.
↑ Gordon, Jesse (November 2008). "Barack Obama For Beginners Book Review by OnTheIssues.org". On The Issues (Cambridge, MA). Retrieved 23 June 2010.
↑ Yau, Linda (15 September 2008). "Book Review: Barack Obama For Beginners". Lincoln Heights Literary Society (Washington). Retrieved 23 June 2010.
↑ Boslaugh, Sarah (18 June 2009). "Deconstruction For Beginners Review". Playback:stl (St. Louis). Retrieved 23 June 2010.
↑ Boslaugh, Sarah (6 August 2009). "Democracy For Beginners Review". Playback:stl (St. Louis). Retrieved 23 June 2010.
↑ Boslaugh, Sarah (9 October 2009). "Existentialism For Beginners Review". Playback:stl (St. Louis). Retrieved 23 June 2010.
↑ Dwyer, Tom (18 November 2008). "Dave Cogswell-Hoboken Writer Publishes New Book". River View Observer (Hudson County, NJ). Retrieved 23 June 2010.
↑ Boslaugh, Sarah (12 March 2009). "Foucault For Beginners Review". Playback:stl (St. Louis). Retrieved 23 June 2010.
↑ Cosentino, Teri (6 May 2009). "NSTA Recommends: Global Warming For Beginners". National Science Teachers Association (Arlington, VA). Retrieved 23 June 2010.
↑ Boslaugh, Sarah (23 April 2009). "Shakespeare For Beginners Review". Playback:stl (St. Louis). Retrieved 23 June 2010.

External links