Open main menu
Home
Random
Recent changes
Special pages
Community portal
Preferences
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Incubator escapee wiki
Search
User menu
Talk
Dark mode
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Editing
Beacon Press
(section)
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
=== The modern era: 1945– === In 1949, Beacon published ''[[American Freedom and Catholic Power]]'', an [[Anti-Catholicism in the United States|anti-Catholic]] tome written by [[socialist]] and [[secular humanist]] [[Paul Blanshard]], who was the assistant editor for [[The Nation]]. Beacon would go on to publish several other books by Blanshard critical of Catholicism over the next few decades. Under director Gobin Stair (1962–75), new authors included [[James Baldwin]], [[Kenneth Clark]], [[André Gorz]], [[Herbert Marcuse]], [[Jürgen Habermas]], [[Howard Zinn]], [[Ben Bagdikian]], [[Mary Daly]], and [[Jean Baker Miller]]. Wendy Strothman became Beacon's director in 1983; she set up the organization's first advisory board, a group of scholars and publishing professionals who advised on book choices and direction. She turned a budget deficit into a surplus. In 1995, her last year at Beacon, Strothman summarized the Press's mission: "We at Beacon publish the books we choose because they share a moral vision and a sense that greater understanding can influence the course of events. They are books we believe in."<ref>Wilson, (2004), p. 209.</ref> Strothman was replaced by Helene Atwan in 1995. In 1971, it published the "[[Mike Gravel|Senator Gravel]] edition" of ''[[The Pentagon Papers]]'' for the first time in book form, when no other publisher was willing to risk publishing such controversial material. Robert West, then-president of the Unitarian Universalist Association, approved the decision to publish ''[[Pentagon Papers|The Pentagon Papers]]'', which West claims resulted in two-and-a-half years of harassment and intimidation by the [[Richard Nixon|Nixon administration]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.uua.org/events/generalassembly/2007/choicesthat/30971.shtml |title=UUA: The Pentagon Papers Then and Now: Unitarian Universalists Confronting Government Secrecy |access-date=2010-12-16 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090904165040/http://www.uua.org/events/generalassembly/2007/choicesthat/30971.shtml |archive-date=2009-09-04 }}</ref> In ''[[Gravel v. United States]]'', the Supreme Court decided that the Constitution's "[[Speech or Debate Clause]]" protected Gravel and some acts of his aide, but not Beacon Press. Beacon Press seeks to publish works that "affirm and promote" several principles: {{blockquote|the inherent worth and dignity of every person; justice, equity and compassion in human relations; acceptance of one another; a free and responsible search for truth and meaning; the right of conscience and the use of the democratic process in society; the goal of the world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all; respect for the interdependent web of all existence; and the importance of literature and the arts in democratic life.}} Beacon Press is a member of the [[Association of University Presses]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Our Members |url=https://aupresses.org/membership/membership-list/ |access-date=January 30, 2023 |publisher=[[Association of University Presses]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.aaupnet.org/membership/directory.html |title=Association of American University Presses Membership Directory |access-date=2007-09-26| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070927013444/http://aaupnet.org/membership/directory.html| archive-date= 27 September 2007 | url-status= live}}</ref>
Edit summary
(Briefly describe your changes)
By publishing changes, you agree to the
Terms of Use
, and you irrevocably agree to release your contribution under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 License
and the
GFDL
. You agree that a hyperlink or URL is sufficient attribution under the Creative Commons license.
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)