Albatross Books

{{Short description|German publishing house}}

{{distinguish|Albatross (novel)}}

{{Infobox publisher

| name = Albatross Books

| image =

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| predecessor =

| founded = 1932

| founder = John Holroyd-Reece, Max Christian Wegner and Kurt Enoch

| successor =

| country = Germany

| headquarters = Hamburg

| distribution =

| keypeople =

| publications =

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| genre = Mass-market paperbacks

| imprints = Tauchnitz

| revenue =

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Albatross Books was a German publishing house based in Hamburg that produced the first modern mass-market paperback books.

Albatross was founded in 1932 by John Holroyd-Reece, Max Christian Wegner and Kurt Enoch.{{cite magazine |url= https://www.spectator.co.uk/2017/05/the-books-the-nazis-didnt-burn/|title= The books the Nazis didn't burn|last= Fallowell|department= review|first= Duncan|date= 2017-05-13|magazine= The Spectator|access-date= 2019-12-17|quote=The German-registered Albatross Press was a significant 20th-century publisher; so why have we barely heard of it?}}{{cite book |last1= Troy|first1= Michele K.|date= 2011|chapter= Behind the Scenes at the Albatross Press: A Modern Press for Modern Times|chapter-url= https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9780230299368_11|title= The Culture of the Publisher's Series, Volume One|editor-last= Spiers|editor-first= J.|publisher= Palgrave Macmillan|place= London|page=202|isbn= 978-0-230-29936-8|access-date= 2019-12-17|doi= 10.1057/9780230299368}} The name was chosen because albatross is the same word in many European languages. Based on the example of Tauchnitz, a Leipzig publishing firm that had been producing inexpensive and paper-bound English-language reprints for the continental market, Albatross set out to streamline and modernize the paperback format.

The books in the series were produced with a layout designed by Giovanni Mardersteig, then art director at the Mondadori Italian publishing house,Grace Lees-Maffei, ed., [https://books.google.com/books?id=vXc8CwAAQBAJ&pg=PA77 Iconic Designs: 50 Stories about 50 Things], Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2017, p. 77. Retrieved 30 January 2022. including a new standard size, 181 x 111 mm, which approximated the aesthetically pleasing proportions known as the Golden Ratio.

{{cite journal

| last = Troy

| first = Michele K.

| editor-last= Wilson

| editor-first= Nicola

| title = Albatross

| url = https://www.modernistarchives.com/business/albatross

| journal = Modernist Archives Publishing Project

| access-date = 2019-12-17

}} They used new sans-serif fonts developed by Stanley Morison among others, and were color-coded by genre, with green for travel, orange for fiction, and so on.

{{cite magazine

| last = Rego Barry

| first = Rebecca

| date = 2017-04-03

| title = The Surprising History of Penguin Predecessor, the Albatross Press

| url = https://www.finebooksmagazine.com/blog/surprising-history-penguin-predecessor-albatross-press

| magazine = Fine Books & Collections

| location = Chapel Hill, NC

| publisher = OP Media, LLC

| access-date= 2019-12-17

}}

The series was so successful that Albatross soon purchased Tauchnitz, giving itself an instant 100-year heritage.

{{cite web

|url= https://paperbackrevolution.wordpress.com/2017/06/13/aldous-huxley-in-tauchnitz-and-albatross-part-2

|title= Aldous Huxley in Tauchnitz and Albatross – Part 2

|last= "jojoal"

|date= 2017-06-13

|website= Paperback Revolution

|series= (blog)

|access-date= 2019-12-17}}

Albatross Books launched two book series, the Albatross Crime Club and the Albatross Mystery Club.

{{cite web

|url= https://paperbackrevolution.wordpress.com/2017/06/13/aldous-huxley-in-tauchnitz-and-albatross-part-2

|title= Albatross

|website= Tauchnitz Editions

|series= (blog)

|date= 13 June 2017

|access-date= 2019-12-17}}

The outbreak of World War II brought the Albatross experiment to a halt, but by then Allen Lane had adopted many of Albatross' ideas, including the standard size, the idea of covers using typography and logo but no illustrations, and the use of color coding by type of content, for Penguin Books. Lane later hired Kurt Enoch, co-founder of Albatross Books, to manage Penguin's American branch.

The Albatross series inspired similar series in other countries as well, such as the Salamander series (Querido) in the Netherlands.