Atlas Books was founded in December of 2002 as an independent publisher of quality nonfiction. Impelled by the conviction that a publisher with a strong identity and a clear mandate would make an enduring contribution to the marketplace of books, we originally set out to produce a handful of strongly focused series.
Great Discoveries, discoveries that marked a turning point in the history of science, in partnership with W. W. Norton & Company, met with critical and commercial acclaim. Eminent Lives, a series of brief biographies by distinguished writer of our day, in partnership with HarperCollins, made an indelible impression on the genre, and our signature format—short books in a small trim size, with a unique pairing of author and subject—has been widely emulated.
Beginning in the spring of 2008, Atlas & Co.—a new name that reflects the collective nature of the enterprise—launches its inaugural independent list. International in scope, the list features a memoir by a former factory worker in China, a stunning collection of photographs of the 1961 Mississippi Freedom Riders, a worldwide survey on the history of book destruction, and a spirited account of one man’s journey through Kazakhstan, among others—a list that will establish our name as one of the leading publishers of high-quality nonfiction in America.
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James Atlas, President
James Atlas is the president of Atlas & Co. and founder of the Penguin Lives series. His numerous books include Bellow: A Biography and the memoir My Life in the Middle Ages, and his biography of Delmore Schwartz was nominated for the National Book Award. A former staff writer for the New Yorker, The Atlantic, and Vanity Fair, he was also an editor at the New York Times Magazine for many years. His work has appeared in the New York Times Book Review, New York Review of Books, and the London Review of Books.
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John G. H. Oakes, Executive Editor
John G. H. Oakes joined Atlas & Co. in the fall of 2006. Previously, he was the publisher of the independent press Four Walls Eight Windows, which he co-founded in 1987, from 1995 through its acquisition by Avalon Publishing Group in 2004. During his two years at Avalon, he was publisher of Thunder's Mouth Press and co-publisher of Nation Books. He is a member of P.E.N.'s Writers Fund Committee and the New York Public Library's Council of Conservators' Book Programming Committee.
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Lukas Volger, Associate Editor/Production Manager
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Alexander Rothman, Editorial Assistant
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Lauren LeBlanc, Assistant Editor