'The Art of the Publisher' by Roberto Calasso

Calasso, who, apart from being the author of a number of interesting and idiosyncratic books, is the publisher at Adelphi Edizioni, here makes a plea for publishing to be considered as a ‘form’ and for publishers to consider their list as a mutually enhancing set rather than a jumble of products, and to bring focus to the selection, design and placement of the works they publish in order to create a recognisable identity as a publisher. The book is a little repetitive as it is an assembly of essays and lectures from several decades, but the challenges it sets are pertinent to the current publishing environment, in which small, sharp publishing houses are finding spaces from which the less-focussed behemoths have withdrawn in pursuit of the ever-greater profits demanded by their shareholders.

February 2016