About
A novel by Janis Rice Grogan
A story by Joe Krakora
A novel by Janis Rice Grogan
Featured Titles
History
Founded in the spring of 1995, Posterity Press, Inc. issued its first book by year's end. The first year that it entered any competitions, PPI won two prizes, for its children's book, The Blacksmith's Tale or Once Upon a Flower. The following year PPI won half a dozen citations, including a design prize for Dara, Autobiography of a Chesapeake Bay Retriever, and two first place awards for Off Soundings, Aspects of the Maritime History of Rhode Island. That volume also won a John Lyman Award from the North American Society for Oceanic History and "Best Read of the Year" kudos from the Providence Journal.
One measure of this small independent press's distinction is the attention its books have received both in the literary press and in mass media. PPI was just two years old when its first paperback, Thomas J. Scanlon's Waiting for the Snow, the Peace Corps Papers of a Charter Volunteer, received enthusiastic reviews in The Washington Post, Boston Globe, and foreign affairs journals.
Industrialist George G. Raymond’s All in the Family… Business, a memoir, was covered in a dozen periodicals, excerpted
in Family Business Magazine, and ultimately became a business schools textbook.
Our second novel, Meade's Reprise, A Novel of Gettysburg, War and Intrigue, won the book prize of the General Meade Society of Philadelphia. It was reviewed in the trade magazine Publisher's Weekly and in the academic journal Civil War Book Review. Shetland Breeds, our charming livestock survey and agrarian history, was endorsed by the heads of the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy and its British counterpart, the Rare Breeds Survival Trust. Our first art book Discovering Margot Peet, by the art historians Marianne Berardi and John Adams, was excerpted in the Kansas City Star and praised by critics. A history of insurance in America, Spreading the Risks, carried a foward by historian Joseph Ellis and was enthusiastically received by captains of the industry. Our latest fiction Crestfall, a romantic fantasy and thriller for young adults, appeared in 2014, the same year as Heard and Overheard: Words Wise (and Otherwise) by Politicians, Statesmen and Real People, by James W. Symington, former congressman and Lyndon Johnson’s chief of protocol.
Special Expertise
PPI has always had a specialty in personal memoirs and family histories, “private books” intended for controlled circulation. Some of these reach beyond their initial audiences to gain wider circulation and public attention; call it “Venture Publishing.” Some may go on to be marketed and distributed commercially.
At the outset, Posterity Press followed in the great tradition of issuing books for private audiences and distribution. (Example, the classic Education of Henry Adams was first "privately printed," then appeared in a trade edition and has never been out of print.) PPI's second book, initially meant for private circulation, went back on press within weeks of its appearance and had modest public sales. Since then some titles that were addressed to small audiences, have enjoyed trade distribution and sale.
Whether planned as a "private" or a "public" book, each PPI title is intended to appeal to its particular audience. However small the printing, our editors, designers and printers pride ourselves on making excellent books in terms of content and physical form. Our private books are edited, designed and printed to the same high standard as our trade books; some even to a higher standard such as the elegant volumes printed in letterpress and slipcased. That said, in 2015 we ventured into the brave new realm of e-books and cyberspace and will do so again with appropriate titles.
Posterity Press, Inc., is chaired by Philip Kopper, publisher and chief editorial officer. Educated at Yale and trained as a journalist, he came to Washington as a reporter for The Washington Post, then advanced to editing and reviewing. He was the founding editor of an outstanding broadcasting magazine, and the director of publications at the National Endowment for the Arts. Mr. Kopper has contributed to many books and periodicals, and he is the sole author of volumes published by Times Books; Stewart, Tabori & Chang; Global Pequot; Harry N. Abrams, Inc.; the Smithsonian Institution; and National Gallery of Art.
Philip Kopper
Publisher and Chief Editorial Officer
Founder
About
Posterity Press, Inc., a prizewinning independent publisher founded in 1995, creates new books of enduring value, often in small printings, always in excellent editions. Collaborating with engaged authors and distinguished designers, we take particular pride in making exceptional books. They are printed by reputable printers on acid-free paper, usually in photo-offset, occasionally in a digital format or the more elegant and older medium of letterpress.
Handsomely designed, each volume is a unique graphic iteration of its literary content. Almost all are hardbound, their pages sewn into signatures then bound between boards and covered in cloth. As our name implies, Posterity Press publishes books that deserve to last.
