Capouya, Emile, 1925-2005

<p>Emile Capouya (1925 – 13 October 2005) was an American essayist, critic, and writer.</p>
<p>
Capouya studied at Columbia University in New York City and started his working life at New Directions. From 1969–1981 he was publisher at The Nation and wrote for The New American Review, The New York Times and The Saturday Review. Capouya published the work of Ezra Pound, Tennessee Williams, Jean-Paul Sartre and James Joyce.

In 1993 he published his first book of short stories, In the Sparrow Hills, a compilation of stories based on his time with Handelsmarine in World War II. It won the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction.

In 1968, he married Keitha Capouya who is a publisher. Keitha was the founder of New Amsterdam Books.</p>

<p>Emile Capouya, 80, Publisher Who Wrote Books Late in Life, Dies</p>
<p>
By Bruce C. T. Wright</p>
<p>Nov. 7, 2005</p>
<p>Emile Capouya, an essayist, critic and publisher who late in life published his first story collection, "In the Sparrow Hills," died on Oct. 13 at his home in East Meredith, N.Y. He was 80.

His death was announced by his family.</p>
<p>
Based on Mr. Capouya's experiences as a young officer in the merchant marine in the Pacific during World War II, "In the Sparrow Hills " (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 1993), which appeared when he was 68, is a collection of five semi-autobiographical short stories. It was widely praised and won the Sue Kaufman Prize of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters.</p>
<p>
Richard Eder, writing in The Los Angeles Times, said the stories reminded him of Montaigne or of Boswell's journals. Donna Seaman, in the American Library Association journal Booklist, described narratives that recounted "heightened moments of conflict between duty and integrity, the surge of adrenalin in instants of fear and fury, and the seethe of emotion beneath the orderly surface of military and workday life." He also published a novella, "The Rising of the Moon," in 2003.</p>
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Mr. Capouya was born in Manhattan in 1925 and grew up in the Bronx. At DeWitt Clinton High School he worked on the school's literary magazine with classmates who included James Baldwin.</p>
<p>
After graduation, he joined the merchant marine, returning home after the war to attend Columbia University while he worked part time as a stevedore on New York's docks. This, coupled with earlier experiences at sea, helped shape the left-leaning political views he put into his articles and reviews for The New American Review, The New York Times, The Saturday Review and The Nation, where he was literary editor from 1969 to 1981.</p>

<p>Mr. Capouya began his professional career at New Directions in New York, publishing works by Ezra Pound, Tennessee Williams, Jean-Paul Sartre and James Joyce, among others. Over the years, he worked at a number of other publishers, acquiring and editing works like "The Other America," by Michael Harrington and "The Periodic Table," by Primo Levi. In 1986, he and his wife Keitha founded New Amsterdam Books, publishing literary fiction.</p>

<p>The couple also edited "The Essential Kropotkin," a collection of writings by the Russian anarchist.</p>
<p>
Mr. Capouya's first marriage, to Mary Denman, ended in divorce. He is survived by his wife; a daughter, Laure, of Baton Rouge, La.; a son, John, of Manhattan; and a sister, Miru, also of Manhattan.</p>