Four Seas Company

The Four Seas Company was a bookstore and small-press publisher in Boston, Massachusetts.[1] It is remembered today mostly for its publication of the early work of major modernist writers such as William Faulkner,[2] William Carlos Williams, Gertrude Stein,[3] and Yone Noguchi. Four Seas was founded by the young Edmund R. Brown upon his graduation from Harvard College in 1910,[4] and its imprint first appears in 1911. The last book published under the imprint was in 1930, the year the company was absorbed by Bruce Humphries, Inc.[4][5]

Notable publications

• Stephen Vincent Benét's first book, Five Men and Pompey (1915)
• William Carlos Williams, Al Que Quiere! (1917)

• John Gould Fletcher, Japanese Prints (1918)

• Yone Noguchi, Japanese Hokkus (1920)

• Olga Petrova, The White Peacock (1920)

• Gertrude Stein, Geography and Plays, (1922)

• William Faulkner's first book, The Marble Faun (1924)[6]

• Harry Crosby, Chariot of the Sun (1929)

• The first two editions of Brazilian literature translated into English: Graca Aranha, Canaan (1920), and Isaac Goldberg, ed, Brazilian Tales (1921)[7]

• The periodical Poetry Journal

Further reading

• Publishing William Carlos Williams: selected correspondence, a collection of William Carlos Williams' correspondence with the Four Seas Company
• Gertrude Stein's correspondence at the Archives at Yale

References

1. Bruno, Guido (1922). Adventures in American Bookshops, Antique Stores and Auction Rooms. Detroit: Douglas Bookshop. p. 106.
2. "William Faulkner: Apprentice Years". The University of Michigan Special Collections Library. Retrieved 22 February 2020.
3. Dydo, Ulla E.; Rice, William (2003). Gertrude Stein: The Language That Rises: 1923-1934. Northwestern University Press. p. 44. ISBN 0-8101-1919-6. Retrieved 22 February 2020.
4. Shackelford, Lynne P. "Four Seas Company." American Literary Publishing Houses, 1900-1980: Trade and Paperback, edited by Peter Dzwonkoski, Gale, 1986. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 46. Gale Literature Resource Center, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/H1220000368/GLS?sid=GLS&xid=0f109352
5. Krygier, John. "Contemporary Series: The Four Seas Company". Ohio Wesleyan University. Retrieved 22 February 2020.
6. Brodsky, Louis Daniel (2011). William Faulkner, Life Glimpses. University of Texas Press. p. 37. ISBN 978-0292739918. Retrieved 22 February 2020.
7. "WITH AUTHORS AND PUBLISHERS". New York Times. September 24, 1922. Retrieved Feb 21, 2020.