I first happened upon McSweeney's in March of 2003. As a lowly art-school grad student I would stop in at the bookstore on the way to studio in the hopes of finding inspiration. While at the news stand, I found the most interesting journal. Printed on news stock with only drawings/prints of the authors - this magazine screamed literary counter-culture, and was like nothing else on the rack. I didn't hesitate to buy a copy, even though my budget at the time didn't allow for such expenditures. What I happened upon was the very first issue of The Believer, a literary/music/arts journal pubished by McSweeney's.
So, for those who don't know, McSweeney's is an American publishing house founded by editor/author Dave Eggers. It started out (in 1998) as a literary journal that, according to the McSweeney's Web site "published only works rejected by other magazines. But after the first issue, the journal began to publish pieces primarily written with McSweeney’s in mind." McSweeney's has six divisions, responsible for publications (again, from their Web site):
McSweeney’s Books whose commitment is to publish books they love (and hope you will love too).
Within McSweeney’s Books, there are four imprints: McSweeney’s Rectangulars is a new fiction series, featuring original works by writers varying wildly in style and subject matter, but all pushing the form forward. Believer Books collects works from some of the magazine’s most popular contributors, such as Nick Hornby, Jim Shepard, and Javier Marías; in addition, Believer Books introduces books from around the non-English-speaking world, publishing them in English for the first time. The Collins Library is a series of handsome reprints of forgotten classics, edited by Paul Collins, a good and brilliant man. McSweeney’s Irregulars, the newest addition, is a collection of irregular books of irregular content appearing at irregular intervals. Most of the Irregulars aim to be funny.
The Believer, as mentioned, is a monthly magazine, exploring the interconnected worlds of books, music, politics, and art—an unpredictable but always pleasing collection of long essays, book reviews, interviews, and small doodles. Regular contributors include Rick Moody, Nick Hornby, Amy Sedaris, and Michel Houellbecq.
Wholphin is a quarterly DVD magazine featuring short films, documentaries, animation, and instructional videos that have not, for whatever reason, found wide release. Recent issues of Wholphin have included films by Spike Jonze, David O. Russell, Miranda July, Miguel Arteta, Errol Morris, and Steven Soderbergh, and performances from John C. Reilly, Selma Blair, Patton Oswalt, Andy Richter, a monkey-faced eel, and many others.
McSweeney’s Internet Tendency is the internet arm. The website offers original content daily, along with event listings, a McSweeney’s store, reviews of new foods, and locations of bookstores that carry McSweeney’s books. We recently received the national Webby Award for Best Writing.
Eggers chose name for the journal and publishing house based on letters his family would receive when he was younger. He says, "[My family] would always get letters from someone named Timothy McSweeney ... He claimed to be my mother's long-lost brother ...[Letters] would always include flight plans, like he was planning on coming to visit. I don't know if he's real or not. My relatives deny it, but who knows?" Turns out, this McSweeney was real, "he was a failed artist with a history of mental illness, and he looked people up in city and state records and wrote to them." [Shulevitz, Too Cool For Words. May 6, 2001.]
McSweeney's has helped launch the careers of young writers, such as Philipp Meyer and Rebecca Curtis; it has also published the works of well-established authors such as Michael Chabon, Roddy Doyle, Stephen King, David Foster Wallace, George Saunders, Michael Ian Black, and Joyce Carol Oates.
In addition to selling their publications through major and independent retailers, McSweeney's also has their own online bookstore, in which you can buy "book bundles" by authors at reduced prices (sometimes they're even signed), you can go to their "Garage Sale" section for books that have "dramatically reduced prices, because" their Web site states, "we believe—and we hope you agree—a hurt book is better than no book at all." You can also, for $100/year, be a part of their book release club in which they send you one copy of the next 10 books they release.
Also, right now, you can purchase the Nick Hornby bundle, three of Hornby's books (one of which is signed) and a CD of Hornby's favorite songs, for $31. Not Bad! (And check out those covers!) Labels: Dave Eggers, Irregulars, McSweeney's, publisher, Rectangulars, The Believer, The Collins Library
