Music publisher goes out of business, out of print
NewsThe publisher Pendragon Press, which has produced many valuable studies of music and musicians, is closing down.
It says: ‘We regret to inform you that due to the death of its co-founder and managing editor, Pendragon Press is forced to go out of business. Once it formally closes down, its books will no longer be available.’
pictured: founder Bob Kessler
This is weird. Can nobody buy the business?
That was my thought, too. Surely his heirs could find a buyer, not to get “rich” but to continue Mr. Kessler’s legacy.
Or at least the book inventory. Better to sell it for a song than to let it disappear for free.
No profit is possible from this…
Looks like this was more or less a one-man show. Perhaps there are no direct heirs, or at least none who could cope with the complexity of selling a business like this. Or maybe there are legal entanglements. Who knows.
Indeed. Looking at their list, I’d say Routledge (or possibly Boydell or Yale) might be interested in taking over the music titles, or at least providing a home for in-print copies until sold out, or converting to print-on-demand; or simply putting overstocks in the hands of a remainder bookseller such as PostScript (https://www.psbooks.co.uk/). Interestingly, the current Pendragon catalogue (http://www.pendragonpress.com/) lists at least five titles ‘In Press’ – what will happen to them?
Looking at their website (which I suppose is also likely to go down) it is a huge, interesting and often highly specialized catalog. A 300+ page book solely about Jascha Heifetz’s only tour of South Africa in the 1930s, for example.
The titles are mostly on subjects so rarefied that the demand for them might well be in handfuls, if that. I have a feeling from the ordering method ( by e mail ) that this was a “print on demand” operation, and if that is the case then it is wholly understandable that there is in reality nothing to sell
Is no one going to pick up the business? Under another name perhaps?
That´s really sad……They published many interesting and rewarding books…