 | |
| Type | Public (Aktsiaselts) |
|---|---|
| Industry | Book publisher |
| Founded | 1991 |
| Headquarters | Tallinn, Estonia |
Key people | Priit Maide, Maret Maide |
| Website | www.varrak.ee |
Varrak is an Estonian book publishing company founded in 1991, which quickly grew to one of the most popular book publishers in Estonia. It publishes both Estonian and translated works, including children's books, biographies, fiction and history books.
The company is named after a character in the Estonian epic poem Kalevipoeg .
Varrak was founded in 1991 by Priit and Maret Maide. They had 1000 rubles, which could buy 1.5–2 tons of paper. She wanted to try to run a book publishing company, knowing that they had nothing to lose on the money. Maret had two works – a book about cocktails compiled by her, and her translation of William Somerset Maugham's The Painted Veil , [1] [2] which is now published by Estonian publisher Canopus, [3] which is known for publishing many other books by Maugham. Alongside Varrak, other publishers started as well, including Huma, Monokkel and half a year later, the schoolbook publisher Koolibri.[ citation needed ]
Their first translator was Krista Kaer, who started working at Varrak in 1992. Arthur Conan Doyle's stories of Sherlock Holmes were the first work of translation after The Painted Veil. In 1993, Varrak published the translation of Brideshead Revisited , this time translated by Henno Rajandi. In 1996, Kaer came to work translating at Varrak as a full-time job, and the company made their first partnership with Dorling Kindersley. [1]
As of 2017, Varrak was Estonia's best-selling fiction publisher. [4]
In 1998, Varrak and Yhtyneet Kuvalehdet OY, publisher of the magazine Suomen Kuvalehti of Finland, cooperated to create the first Estonian book club, known as Suur Eesti Raamatuklubi ("Large Estonian Book Club", shortened as "SERK"), a promotional effort that would allow its members lower prices on Varrak's books. The club also provided a monthly newsletter, alongside a Book of the Month, which would be extensively promoted in the newsletter. The club was then broken to two individual clubs in 2006, forming SERK and the Varrak book club, the latter of which than included 15,000 members. The two rejoined in 2008 back into SERK, now with 35,000 members. [1]
Notable Estonian authors whose works are published exclusively by Varrak include: [5]
Foreign authors whose works have been translated into Estonian exclusively for Varrak include: [5]
William Somerset Maugham was an English writer, known for his plays, novels and short stories. Born in Paris, where he spent his first ten years, Maugham was schooled in England and went to a German university. He became a medical student in London and qualified as a doctor in 1897. He never practised medicine, and became a full-time writer. His first novel, Liza of Lambeth (1897), a study of life in the slums, attracted attention, but it was as a playwright that he first achieved national celebrity. By 1908 he had four plays running at once in the West End of London. He wrote his 32nd and last play in 1933, after which he abandoned the theatre and concentrated on novels and short stories.
Doris May Lessing was a British novelist. She was born to British parents in Iran, where she lived until 1925. Her family then moved to Southern Rhodesia, where she remained until moving in 1949 to London, England. Her novels include The Grass Is Singing (1950), the sequence of five novels collectively called Children of Violence (1952–1969), The Golden Notebook (1962), The Good Terrorist (1985), and five novels collectively known as Canopus in Argos: Archives (1979–1983).
Doubleday is an American publishing company. It was founded as the Doubleday & McClure Company in 1897 and was the largest in the United States by 1947. It published the work of mostly U.S. authors under a number of imprints and distributed them through its own stores. In 2009 Doubleday merged with Knopf Publishing Group to form the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, which is now part of Penguin Random House. In 2019, the official website presents Doubleday as an imprint, not a publisher.
Planet of Exile is a 1966 science fiction novel by American writer Ursula K. Le Guin, part of her Hainish Cycle. It was first published as an Ace Double following the tête-bêche format, bundled with Mankind Under the Leash by Thomas M. Disch. In 2017, the rights for a movie were acquired by Los Angeles Media Fund.
Hutchinson was a British publishing firm which operated from 1887 until 1985, when it underwent several mergers. It is currently an imprint which is ultimately owned by Bertelsmann, the German publishing conglomerate.
Victor Gollancz Ltd was a major British book publishing house of the twentieth century and continues to publish science fiction and fantasy titles as an imprint of Orion Publishing Group.
Blood of Elves is the first novel in the Witcher Saga written by the Polish fantasy writer Andrzej Sapkowski, first published in Poland in 1994. It is a sequel to the Witcher short stories collected in the books The Last Wish and Sword of Destiny and is followed by Time of Contempt. The book won the Janusz A. Zajdel Award in 1994 and the David Gemmell Legend Award in 2009. An English translation was published in the United Kingdom in 2008 (Gollancz) and in the United States in 2009 (Orbit).
George H. Doran Company (1908–1927) was an American book publishing company established by George Henry Doran. He organized the company in Toronto and moved it to New York City on February 22, 1908.
William Heinemann Ltd., with the imprint Heinemann, was a London publisher founded in 1890 by William Heinemann. Their first published book, 1890's The Bondman, was a huge success in the United Kingdom and launched the company. He was joined in 1893 by Sydney Pawling. Heinemann died in 1920 and Pawling sold the company to Doubleday, having worked with them in the past to publish their works in the United States. Pawling died in 1922 and new management took over. Doubleday sold his interest in 1933.
Karl Ristikivi was an Estonian writer. He is among the best Estonian writers for his historical novels.
Tõnu Õnnepalu, also known by the pen names Emil Tode and Anton Nigov, is an Estonian poet, author and translator.
The Book League of America, Inc. was a US book publisher and mail order book sales club. It was established in 1930, a few years after the Book of the Month Club. Its founder was Lawrence Lamm, previously an editor at Macmillan Inc. The company was located at 100 Fifth Avenue, New York City, New York in a 240,000-square-foot (22,000 m2) office building that was constructed in 1906. It printed and distributed a variety of volumes in the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. A victim of the Great Depression, the Book League of America was purchased by Doubleday in 1936.
Jaak Urmet is an Estonian writer.
National Book Trust (NBT) is an Indian publishing house, which was founded in 1957 as an autonomous body under the Ministry of Education of the Government of India. The activities of the Trust include publishing, promotion of books and reading, promotion of Indian books abroad, assistance to authors and publishers, and promotion of children's literature. NBT publishes reading material in several Indian languages for all age-groups, including books for children and Neo-literates. They publish a monthly Newsletter about recent publications.
Francis Spufford FRSL is an English author and teacher of writing whose career has seen him shift gradually from non-fiction to fiction. His first novel Golden Hill received critical acclaim and numerous prizes including the Costa Book Award for a first novel, the Desmond Elliott Prize and the Ondaatje Prize. In 2007 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Kätlin Kaldmaa is an Estonian freelance writer, poet, translator and literary critic. Since 2010, Kaldmaa is the president of the Estonian PEN. In 2016 she was elected Secretary of the PEN International.
Marju Lepajõe was an Estonian classical philologist, translator and religious historian.
Reza Shirmarz, is a Greece-based published and awarded playwright, translator, researcher, theatre director and essayist with more than 30 books both written and translated by him, who has been collaborating with major publishing companies, theaters, drama schools, radio channels, journals, etc. in Iran. Reza Shirmarz was elected as a member of the board of directors of Iran's Playwrights Guild for 3 ongoing years. He has also been a professional member of bodies such as Iran's Playwrights Guild, PEN America and Dramatists Guild of America. He also is a language specialist and a full member of Chartered Institute of Linguists (CIOL) in London.
Melchior Wakenstede is a fictional character created by Indrek Hargla, and is the main protagonist of Hargla's Melchior the Apothecary book series. He is a pharmacist who solves crimes in medieval Tallinn.
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