Buried treasures

Three picture books are given a new life as editors rediscover their magic.

The stories behind how books make it into editors' hands and get published are often interesting, and three books due out later this year are no exception. In fact, each of these books has quite a history

A Brief Look at New York

Back in the summer of 2001, Rizzoli editor Jane Ginsberg received a fortuitous phone call. Judith Stonehill and Barbara Cohen, owners of the now-closed New York Bound Bookshop, contacted Ginsberg to tell her about a book they'd had success selling during their years of bookselling, and suggested that it might make a good addition to the Rizzoli list. When Ginsberg saw the book, This Is New York, she jumped at the chance to work on the project.

This Is New York was first published by Macmillan in 1960 and stayed in print until the late 1980s. The book sold well in its initial run but eventually went out of print due to declining sales. Now, after more than a decade, the Universe imprint of Rizzoli will be reissuing the book in May.

Written and illustrated by Miroslav Sasek, who signed himself M. Sasek, This Is New York is just one title in a series of 18 illustrated books he produced from 1959 to 1974. Each book in the series explores a different city or area of interest, from Rome (1960) to Cape Canaveral (1963), giving readers a timeless view of the cities with his trademark vivid colors and European style.

Ginsberg said that what first drew her to the book was "the art and the story themselves. They were both so fantastic. It just happened that New York was the first book in the series that we were introduced to."

The series had come about quite by accident. Sasek had initially proposed the first title, This Is Paris, to his agent as a child's travel guide. As Ginsberg tells the story, "It was intended as just one title, but the book was so successful that it launched all the others."

The overall appearance of the book has not been changed from its original edition. Ginsberg said, "We tried to update the text very modestly, but [did] nothing to interfere with the book's original look or vision. And anywhere a fact was updated, there is an asterisk next to the text and the reader can look it up in the back of the book to find out the newly updated fact."

Along with This Is New York, This Is San Francisco, first published in 1962, will also be released in May. According to Ginsberg, early response to the books has been very positive so far; "there are a lot of Sasek fans out there," she said. Depending on the success of these two books, Rizzoli will consider reissuing the other books in the series in future years.

With such rich histories, these... picture books prove that some things are indeed worth waiting for.

Text from Joy Bean, Buried treasures, Publishers Weekly, 21 April 2003
© Publishers Weekly.