Universities: Scholarly Madness

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Nearly every major university today has its own academic press—a branch of publishing that seeks to bridge the gap between the world of scholarship and an increasingly educated public eager to find out what the scholars have to say. "We publish the smallest editions at the greatest cost," says Yale University Press Director Chester Kerr, "and on these we place the highest prices and try to market them to people who can least afford them. This is madness."

Madness it may be, but there is method to it. No longer just an outlet for the resident faculty and unreadable

Ph.D. theses, the nation's university presses are growing in professionalism —and popularity. Last year the 67 members of the Association of American University Presses sold $22 million worth of books, five times 1948 sales, and they now account for one out of every eight nonfiction titles produced in the U.S. Many have joined the paperback boom, and are eagerly spreading U.S. scholarship abroad: 15% of all university press sales are now made overseas, and Columbia, Chicago and Yale even operate a joint sales office and warehouse in London.

Significant Scholarship. A major reason the university presses are booming is that their product has improved—in style, quality, polish and design. Much of the new professional sheen of academic publishing has been fostered by three veterans of the industry, each of whom has recently announced his impending retirement from his own pace-setting press. Combining sound editorial technique with a sense of significant scholarship, each has put his own distinctive imprint on university publishing. The three:

>Roger W. Shugg, 62, a former Princeton history teacher and aide to Commercial Publisher Alfred Knopf, has directed the University of Chicago Press since 1954, made it into the most efficient academic press in the U.S. He has led the drive to provide author-professors with better editing as well as better contracts and royalties. Shugg has also installed computer billing and full-time coast-to-coast salesmen, written eyecatching ads that are more seductive than sedate. Although most university presses fail to turn a profit, the Chicago Press has made $500,000 in the past ten years.