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American Literary Studies

North Point Press, 1980 - 1991

The Collection

Location: Department of Special Collections, Green Library

Size: 495 linear feet

Call number: M0833

Finding Guides: A detailed inventory of the collection is available in the Reading Room of the Department of Special Collections.

Research Access and Use: Materials in the Department of Special Collections are non-circulating and must be used in the Special Collections' Reading Room in the Cecil H. Green Library. The Reading Room is open 10:00am to 5:00pm Monday through Friday. Photocopies, photographs, and microfilm can be made of some materials in the collections. For more information about the collections and access policies, please contact Special Collections by telephone at (650) 725-1022, by electronic mail at speccollref@stanford.edu or by regular mail at the Department of Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, California 94305-6004.

History of the North Point Press: North Point Press was founded in 1980 by real estate tycoon William Turnbull to publish small runs (5000-10,000 copies) of original works and reprints neglected by the major houses. Though small, the press survived on the basis of the high quality of its list, selected by editor Jack Shoemaker, and by the excellence of the design and illustration. In 1982, the company received a Carey-Thomas Honor Citation for its "enterprise in publishing new work and reviving work from the past in beautifully made editions." In its brief ten year reign, North Point Press distinguished itself as one of the most discriminating houses publishing mainline serious literature.

Content: A comprehensive publisher's archive which includes correspondence with authors as well as complete documentation of the business side of the press, the North Point Press Papers constitute a major resource for the study of American letters, in both the areas of single author studies and of literary and publishing history. Some of the authors published by the press are: Evan S. Connell, Wendell Berry, William Bronk, Guy Davenport, Steven Dixon, Ernest Gaines, Thom Gunn, Donald Hall, Michael Palmer, Leslie Scalpino. Gary Snyder, Gilbert Sorrentino, and Paul Taylor. The archive records everything from initial queries and solicitations from authors to marketing, book design, sales and reviews.

The collection is divided into five categories:

1. Editiorial files - successive print stages of each manuscript published
2. Author files - collected correspondence between the authors and the editors
3. Business records - reports on sales, marketing, forecasting, publicity, and production
4. Production files -documentation of the stages in the design of the book and its cover including design sketches, layout, and art work
5. Publicity files - marketing files, correspondence, and press clippings relating to the publications

Last modified: June 1, 2009