For Beginners
{{Short description|American publishing company that produces the For Beginners graphic nonfiction series}}
{{Infobox publisher
| name = For Beginners, LLC
| image =
| parent =
| status =
| founded = {{start date and age|1974}}
| founder = Glenn Thompson, Sian Williams, John Berger, Lisa Appignanesi, Richard Appignanesi, Arnold Wesker, Chris Searle
| predecessor = Writers and Readers Cooperative,
Writers and Readers Publishing, Inc.
| successor =
| country = U.S., previously United Kingdom
| headquarters = London (1974–87), then New York City (1987–2001), now Danbury, Connecticut
| distribution = Red Wheel/Weiser/Conari{{Cite web| title = The 2016 Book Distributors Profiles – Publishing Trends| access-date = December 25, 2017| url = http://www.publishingtrends.com/2016/10/6788/}}
| keypeople = Glenn Thompson
Dawn Reshen-Doty
Merrillee Warholak
| publications = Books
| topics = history, philosophy, politics
| genre =
| imprints = Harlem River Press
Black Butterfly Children's Books
| revenue =
| numemployees =
| nasdaq =
| website = {{URL|http://www.forbeginnersbooks.com/|forbeginnersbooks.com}}
}}
For Beginners LLC is a publishing company based in Danbury, Connecticut, that publishes the For Beginners graphic nonfiction series of documentary comic books on complex topics, covering an array of subjects on the college level. Meant to appeal to students and "non-readers", as well as people who wish to broaden their knowledge without attending a university, the series has sold more than a million copies.{{cn|date=October 2014}}
The For Beginners series was launched in the mid-1970s, but became out of print and often unavailable after the 2001 death of co-founder and publisher Glenn Thompson.Berger, John, and Margaret Busby (September 12, 2001). [https://www.theguardian.com/news/2001/sep/12/guardianobituaries1 "Glenn Thompson: A pioneering black publisher, he saw books as a window for opening the minds of the oppressed"], The Guardian. In 2007, a consortium of investors revived the series, reprinted back issues, and promised to publish between six and nine new issues each year.{{cn|date=October 2014}} The current publisher is Dawn Reshen-Doty.
History
{{refimprove section|date=January 2025}}
The company began as Writers and Readers Publishing Cooperative, a London, England-based publisher founded in 1974 by Glenn Thompson, his then-wife Sian Williams, Richard Appignanesi, Lisa Appignanesi, John Berger, Arnold Wesker, and Chris Searle. A publishing cooperative, the founders of Writers and Readers shared the work and the profits. (The Cooperative also operated a London bookshop at 144 Camden High Street until the mid-1980s.{{cn|date=October 2014}})
The For Beginners series has its origins in two Spanish-language books, Cuba para principiantes (1960) and Marx para principiantes (1972) by the Mexican political cartoonist and writer Rius, pocket books that put their content over in a humorous comic book way but with a serious underlying purpose.{{cn|date = January 2025}} An English-language version of the first book was published in 1970 by Leviathan Press of San Francisco and Pathfinder Press of New York, with no particularly great impact.{{cn|date = January 2025}} However, when Richard Appignanesi published (and translated) the first English edition of Marx for Beginners (1976), it was soon clear that the collective had a hit on their hands.[https://www.introducingbooks.com/history/ "Introducing Graphic Guides"], introducingbooks.com, Icon Books. Retrieved January 29, 2011.[http://www.forbeginnersbooks.com/aboutus.html "About Us"], For Beginners. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141016085036/http://www.forbeginnersbooks.com/aboutus.html |date=October 16, 2014 }}. Retrieved January 29, 2011. With a successful format identified, further For Beginners titles soon began to appear. The line's most enduring titles, all published during this period, were Marx for Beginners (1976), Lenin for Beginners (1977), Freud for Beginners (1979), Einstein for Beginners (1979), and Darwin for Beginners (1982).MacDonald, H. (2003), [http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/print/20031222/39466-pantheon-re-offers-for-beginners-series.html "Pantheon re-offers 'for beginners' series"], Publishers Weekly, 250(51), 26.
In the early 1980s, questions of control arose after some members of the cooperative sold U.S. rights to part of the For Beginners series to Pantheon Books. The cooperative officially disbanded in 1984.{{cn|date=January 2015}}
Following this rift, in 1987 Thompson took over as sole publisher and moved back to his hometown of New York City to establish a legal foothold and prevent any further unauthorized distribution of titles.{{cn|date=January 2015}} Based in Harlem, the company was known as Writers and Readers Publishing, Inc.; in moving the company to Harlem, Thompson’s goal was to stimulate a new Harlem Renaissance, in his creating an international publishing house there.{{cn|date=January 2015}} He also started two other publishing companies: The Harlem River Press, publishing children’s poetry, and Black Butterfly Children's Books, books for the inner-city child.{{cn|date=January 2015}} The London-based company, formally established in 1992, was known as Writers and Readers Limited.[https://www.duedil.com/company/02741303/writers-and-readers-limited "Writers and Readers Limited"], DueDil.com. Retrieved January 12, 2015.{{dead link|date=January 2025}}{{dead link|date=January 2025}} For years, Thompson spent his time traveling between England and New York to manage the two companies.{{cn|date=January 2015}}
In 1992, Richard Appignanesi, who had been the first editor in London for the series and had also written several of the titles, co-created the new publisher Icon Books, under whose imprint he republished several of the For Beginner titles and continued to publish and expand a British version of the series called Introducing.{{cn|date=January 2015}} Meanwhile, the New York-based Writers and Readers continued the For Beginners series, in several cases commissioning new authors to create replacement books for those being published in Britain.{{cn|date=January 2015}} This led to a number of examples where the two ranges were publishing two different books on the same subject.{{cn|date=January 2015}}
Thompson died of cancer in London on September 7, 2001;{{cn|date=January 2015}} by the time of his death, the company had published more than forty For Beginners titles.{{cn|date=January 2015}}
Several years after Thompson's death, investors decided to buy the rights to the titles, creating For Beginners, LLC.{{cn|date=January 2015}} In the summer of 2007 For Beginners LLC re-released twenty of the prior For Beginners titles and authorized the first new title, Dada and Surrealism For Beginners.{{cite news |last=DeSio |first=John|title=Nerd-Vana: New York Comic Con|newspaper=The Village Voice |date= February 9, 2009 | location=New York|access-date= June 23, 2010 |url=http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/archives/2009/02/nerd-vana_new_y.php#}}
In 2010, the company released FDR for Beginners by Paul Buhle and Sabrina Jones, with an afterword by Harvey Pekar.[https://www.publishersweekly.com/9781934389508 "FDR and The New Deal For Beginners"], Publishers Weekly (September 13, 2010). Retrieved November 5, 2022.Pietaro, John (July 20, 2010). [https://peoplesworld.org/article/fdr-and-the-new-deal-for-beginners/ "FDR and the New Deal for Beginners"], People's World.
References
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Category:Book publishing companies based in Connecticut
Category:Comic book publishing companies of the United States