The Garden of Eros

A wonderfully evocative memoir filled with anecdotes and a rich cast of expats of the postwar Paris literary scene * The Guardian *It is humbling to read about a period when publishers actually did have convictions and moral bravery, and were willing to risk both jail and bankruptcy to counter a reactionary and conservative establishment. The freedoms we currently have were won for us by individuals such as Calder, who more than any other publisher of the period attempted to effect a rapprochement between a moderately stuffy British literature and continental and American avant-gardes. * The Scotsman *It is always a pleasure to read the reminiscences of my old amigo, John Calder, publisher, opera buff and man about town. – Alan Taylor * The Herald *It is Calder’s endearingly inexhaustible appetite for experimental writing, and its concomitant internationalism, which have so distinguished his contribution to world literature. Had it not been for his inroads, in league with the overall body of the cosmopolitan avant-garde, so enlarging the UK’s narrow literary scope and low aims, the xenophobic likes (and many dislikes) of Philip Larkin, Kingsley Amis and their ilk might have left the UK in intellectually repressed isolation from most of the English-speaking planet. * The Times *John Calder is Britain’s most distinguished living publisher, and at the age of 86 he’s still at it. He first set up in business in 1949 and went on to publish 18 Nobel Prize winners, as well as classics and works on music. Why doesn’t he received a knighthood? Perhaps because his distinction lies chiefly in his role as champion of the avant garde. (…) It was an audacious era, superbly recaptured in Calder’s book. * The Spectator *

Since 1949, John Calder has published eighteen Nobel Prize winners and around fifteen hundred books. He has put into print many of the major French and European writers, almost single-handedly introducing modern literature into the English language. His commitment to literary excellence has influenced two generations of authors, readers, booksellers and publishers. He is the author of several plays, a memoir and various non-fiction titles.