Richard Seaver, the groundbreaking supporter of such great writers as D. H. Lawrence, Eugene Ionesco, Samuel Beckett and Jean Genet, has died.
Over the course of his celebrated career, he served as editor-in-chief of Grove Press, helmed a Viking imprint, guided Holt, Rinehart & Winston’s trade division, and finally served 20 years as the publisher of Arcade Publishing. Tributes to his life can be found here and here.
In 1952, Seaver wrote a critical piece that helped define Samuel Beckett’s place in world literature, a fitting tribute to the editor’s critical legacy. From the NY Times obituary: “How do you write a meaningful comment on such rich, complex, still undiscovered work, without making a critical fool of yourself? … So make a fool of yourself.”