The Red Thread: Twenty Years of Nyrb Classics - by Edwin Frank (Paperback)

About the Book

"Celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the NYRB Classics series, a collection of twenty favorite selections. In Greek mythology, Ariadne gave Theseus a ball of red thread to guide him through the labyrinth, and the Red Thread offers a path through and a way to explore the ins and outs and twists and turns of the celebrated NYRB Classics series, now twenty years old. The NYRB Classics series is known for translating great books from throughout the ages and all over the world; for rediscovering neglected geniuses such as Eve Babitz, Sylvia Townsend Warner, and John Williams; and for its wide-ranging eclecticism. The series ranges across time and space and through multiple literary genres, from the novel and the short story to memoirs, diaries, essays personal and impersonal, works of history, philosophy, and criticism, poems and polemics and how-to books. This selection of stories, chapters, essays, poems, reflections, remembrances and sundry other literary illuminations has been made by the founder and editor of the series, Edwin Frank, to suggest something of its unique range and encapsulate the idea that writing that is truly alive may turn up anywhere"--

Book Synopsis

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of NYRB Classics, a handpicked anthology of selections from the series.

In Greek mythology, Ariadne gave Theseus a ball of red thread to guide him through the labyrinth, and the Red Thread offers a path through and a way to explore the ins and outs and twists and turns of the celebrated NYRB Classics series, now twenty years old. The collection brings together twenty-five pieces drawn from the more than five hundred books that have come out as NYRB Classics over the last twenty years. Stories, essays, interviews, poems, along with chapters from novels and memoirs and other longer narratives have been selected by Edwin Frank, the series editor, to chart a distinctive, entertaining, and thought-provoking course across the expansive and varied terrain of the Classics series.

Review Quotes

"[L]egends come to life in this fine collection and stirring sights from the past are evoked again. The range is diverse . . . and everything is engrossing and piquant in a bite-sized way."--Paddy Kehoe, RTÉ

"[NYRB Classics] is a national treasure, responsible as they are for republishing or translating so many of the most astonishing books over the last two decades. Tove Jansson's The Summer Book, Richard Hughes's A High Wind in Jamaica, Renata Adler's Speedboat, John Williams's Stoner These books and others make up a large percentage of my personal canon and that of many writers I know." --Lauren Groff, The New York Times Book Review

"[The NYRB Classics series] is amazingly fine in its choice of titles and in the design of the books." --Michael Dirda, The Washington Post

"The real contribution that New York Review Books makes [is] it helps you to see that the world is more different than you thought. By teaching you what the American novel has been, they teach you what it can be and in turn what the American people have been and can be. . . . What's old is made new again." --D.T. Max, Los Angeles Times

"New York Review Books Classics [is] acting, yet again, in its capacity as the Savior of Lost Greats." --Claire Messud, The New York Times Book Review

About the Author

Edwin Frank was born in Boulder, Colorado, and educated at Harvard College and Columbia University. He is the author of Snake Train: Poems 1984-2013 and the editorial director of the NYRB Classics series.