MAIN NEWS HEADLINES
June 8 – June 15, 2006 Edition
Library of America
To Open Boutique
On Amazon.com
NEW YORK, NY/6/7/06The Library of America will soon have a boutique retail store inside Amazon.com where it will sell classic books. The LOA is a nonprofit publisher dedicated to keeping in print authoritative editions of Americas best and most significant writing. The company is only the second to be featured in a retail section of its own on the giant Amazon site. The other boutique storefront is by Penguin Classics, an imprint of Penguin Group USA.
A banner ad on the main books page at Amazon.com will guide readers to the LOA section where more than 180 titles will be offered at 40% off the original retail priceat more than a hefty $3869 for the entire set. This is the first time the publisher has offered its extensive series to the public as a complete set.
The Library of America was founded in 1979 to undertake a historic endeavor: to help preserve the nation’s cultural heritage by publishing America’s best and most significant writing in durable and authoritative editions.
Like the historic preservation movement, which originated in the 1920s with concerns about architectural heritage, The Library of America seeks to restore and pass on to future generations our nation’s literary heritage. This entails something never attempted before: not only publishing these volumes but keeping them permanently in print and widely available to readers.
In the years since The Library of America’s inception it has come to be recognized by both scholars and the general public as the national edition of our country’s literature. The series has won the National Book Critics Circle special award for “distinguished contributions to the enhancement of American literary and critical standards.” It has also received the “Ambassador of Honor” title from the English-Speaking Union and the Carey- Thomas Award for Creative Publishing.
