Covici, Pascal, 1888-1964
Pascal Covici, publisher and editor, was born in Botosani, Romania, in 1888 and immigrated to the United States with his parents in 1896. He attended the University of Michigan and the University of Chicago. In 1915, he married Dorothy Soll. They had one son, Pascal Covici, Jr.
Covici's first publishing venture was undertaken with William McGee. Their first title, published under the Covici-McGee imprint in 1922, was Ben Hecht's 1001 Afternoons in Chicago. In 1925, the Covici-McGee partnership dissolved, and Covici began publishing under his own imprint. Publications included Erasmus's In Praise of Folly, works by Richard Aldington, works by Remy de Gourmont as translated by Aldington, and translations of works by the Marquis de Sade and Joris Karl Huysmans. In 1928, Covici moved to New York to establish a partnership with Donald Friede. The Covici-Friede firm specialized in limited editions. Among their titles were the complete works of François Villon, the Ben Hecht-Charles MacArthur play The Front Page, Aldington's Collected Poems, Mrs. Julia Moore's The Sweet Singer of Michigan, Wyndham Lewis's The Childermass (though only the first of the three planned volumes was published, due to poor sales), and Radclyffe Hall's The Well of Loneliness. After an indictment for obscenity, sales for Hall's novel doubled.
Despite such successes, however, the economic collapse of the Depression spelled the end of the market for limited editions; Covici-Friede was forced to publish what Friede described as machine-made fiction, including Bobbie Meredith's Speakeasy Girl, George A. Bagby's Bachelor's Wife, and Grace Perkins's Boy Crazy. This period was followed by a return to more respectable titles, such as Horace Gregory's translation of The Poems of Catullus, Gene Fowler's The Great Mouthpiece, John Strachey's The Coming Struggle for Power, and Three Plays by Clifford Odets. Among the last titles published by the firm were John Steinbeck's Tortilla Flat (1935), In Dubious Battle (1936), Of Mice and Men (1937), and The Red Pony (1937). When the firm finally collapsed because of insolvency, all outstanding debts and authors' royalties were paid; Covici and Friede, however, lost their entire investment.
In 1938, Covici obtained the position of senior editor at Viking Press. In addition to Steinbeck, who followed him to Viking, Covici worked with writers such as Saul Bellow, Ludwig Bemelmans, Joseph Campbell, George Gamow, Shirley Jackson, Willy Ley, Arthur Miller, Marianne Moore, Lionel Trilling, and Covici's lifelong friend Gene Fowler. Steinbeck's East of Eden and Bellow's Herzog were both dedicated to Covici. Covici also held primary responsibility for the Viking Portable Library. Pascal Covici died in 1964.
From the guide to the Pascal Covici Correspondence TXRC96-A14., 1924-1966, (bulk 1938-1964), (Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin)
Role | Title | Holding Repository | |
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referencedIn | Cummings, E. E. (Edward Estlin), 1894-1962. Additional papers, 1870-1969. | Houghton Library | |
referencedIn | George Grosz papers, 1893-1981 (inclusive) 1919-1959 (bulk). | Houghton Library | |
creatorOf | Pascal Covici Correspondence TXRC96-A14., 1924-1966, (bulk 1938-1964) | Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center | |
referencedIn | Cummings, E. E. (Edward Estlin), 1894-1962. Papers, 1870-1969 | Houghton Library |
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Birth 1888
Death 1964