Seymour Lawrence papers

Seymour Lawrence, an independent publisher of important American and international writers, was born on February 11, 1926, in New York City, the son of Jack and Sophie L. Lawrence. He graduated from Harvard University in 1948 and began his career in publishing by becoming a college traveler, or academic trade representative, for the Van Nostrand Company, a publisher of college textbooks. In 1950 he became a special assistant to the editor of Atlantic Monthly and by 1952 had risen to the position of associate editor of Atlantic Monthly Press. In succession, he became director and editor-in-chief for Atlantic Monthly. He left Atlantic Monthly in 1964 to become editorial vice-president for Alfred Knopf, Inc., another highly respected publishing house.

He launched his own personal imprint, Seymour Lawrence, Inc., in 1965, with only one book, The Ginger Man by J. P. Donleavy. His imprint, a small separate publishing division under his name, allowed Lawrence to assume responsibility for finding, nurturing, and publishing new writers. He was well-known throughout the publishing industry as someone who would provide much needed support, whether financial or psychological, to the writers he had discovered. His imprint was a division of the larger publishing company Dell/Delacorte for seventeen years until the company declined to renew his co-publishing agreement in 1982. He continued his career and imprint with the publishing company, E. P. Dutton, Inc., for six years and, in 1988, affiliated with Houghton Mifflin.

Among the distinguished authors published by Mr. Lawrence were Katherine Anne Porter, Kurt Vonnegut, J. P. Donleavy, Thomas Berger, Richard Brautigan, William Saroyan, and Frank Conroy. He also published the works of four authors who won the Nobel Prize for Literature: Miguel Ángel Asturias, Camillo José Cela, Pablo Neruda, and George Seferis. Seymour Lawrence was responsible for publishing such memorable books as: Ship of Fools by Katherine Anne Porter, Trout Fishing in America by Richard Brautigan, Going After Caciato by Tim O'Brien, Little Big Man by Thomas Berger, Selected Poems by Pablo Neruda, and Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut.

He married Merloyd Ludington on June 21, 1952, and they had two children, a daughter, Macy, and a son, Nicholas. He was divorced in February 1984 and in later years lived with Joan Williams, a novelist and short story writer.

He died on January 4, 1994, from complications suffered during a heart attack which struck him while he was in Florida. The New York Times obituary of Lawrence included the following characterization:

Mr. Lawrence's authors described him as a publisher who was passionately committed to writers and writing, but who was not always tolerant of "misguided reviewers" or the publishing bureaucracy.