The Philolexian Society of Columbia University
Jason Epstein
Founder of Anchor Books; co-founder of The New York Review of Books and the Library of America.
From Notable Alumni · Foundation editorial
Founder of Anchor Books; co-founder of The New York Review of Books and the Library of America. Jason Epstein (CC 1949) had three good ideas, executed all of them, and lived long enough to see each become an institution. At Doubleday in 1953 he invented the trade paperback as Anchor Books. In 1963, with his wife Barbara and Robert Silvers, he turned a New York newspaper strike into The New York Review of Books. In 1979 he resurrected Edmund Wilson's stalled proposal for a Pléiade-style American canon, raised the money, and called it the Library of America. One could do worse for a working life.
Vital
- Full name
- Jason Epstein
Columbia & the Society
- Columbia
- Class of 1949 (Columbia College)
- Society role
- 1947 Philolexian revival signatory (per Melnechuk's class-notes account of the original scroll).
Works (10)
- 1953 Anchor Books (founder, paperback line) · Imprint
- 1963 The New York Review of Books (co-founder) · Magazine
- 1970 The Great Conspiracy Trial: An Essay on Law, Liberty and the Constitution · Random House
- 1979 Library of America (co-founder) · Publishing program
- 2001 Book Business: Publishing, Past, Present, and Future · W.W. Norton
- 2009 Eating: A Memoir · Alfred A. Knopf
- 2009 New York: The Prophet · New York Review of Books, Aug. 13
- 2010 Publishing: The Revolutionary Future · New York Review of Books, Mar. 11
- 2012 How Books Will Survive Amazon · New York Review of Books, Apr. 26
- 2013 A Strike and a Start: Founding The New York Review · New York Review of Books, Mar. 16
Primary sources
Columbia College Today & other articles
Columbia College Today — vol. 44 (Nov 2002 / Jan 2003), Class of 1948 alumni class notes by Ted Melnechuk
Thomas Vinceguerra '85, former managing editor of CCT and now deputy editor of The Week, helped to revive the Philolexian Society in October 1985 and still helps to maintain and lead it... In the Columbia archives, Tom discovered the Philolexian Society's original membership scroll. From it, he could tell that, between Philos' original founding in 1802 and its 1985 revival, it was revived twice. The first revival was in 1944 and involved Walter Wager '44, who nowadays is that year's class correspondent. The second was in October 1947, and among the signatures from that time were those of Vincent Carrozza '49, Jason Epstein '49, and Theodor [sic] Melnechuk... Tom sent me a list of members of our class who were members of the Philolexian Society when it was revived in 1947. They included Sylvain Bromberger, the late Barry Decker, Herbert C. V. Feinstein, the late Allen Ginsberg, Donald…
Melnechuk's class-notes column names Jason Epstein '49 as a 1947 revival signatory — cross-checked against Thomas Vinciguerra's 1980s discovery of the original Philolexian membership scroll in the Columbia archives, which lists the members who signed at the October 1947 revival. Two-source confirmation of Society membership: (a) the physical scroll signature, and (b) Vinciguerra + Melnechuk's transcription.
The Foundation's research archive
Philolexian Foundation research file: handwritten list of Philos by class year
name written in parentheses · Confidence: CERTAIN
other_printed (Philolexian alumni newsletter)
headline of an article continued from page 2 of the newsletter · Confidence: CERTAIN
External references
Community-maintained record
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