Four Walls Eight Windows
Encyclopedia
Four Walls Eight Windows was an independent book publisher in New York City
. Its debut occurred in the fall of 1987, under the direction of two young editors, John G. H. Oakes and Daniel Simon
. (Simon had previously had an imprint under the same name at Writers and Readers Publishing.) In 1995, Oakes and Simon parted ways. Oakes remained as publisher and Simon went on to found Seven Stories Press
. In 2004, Four Walls Eight Windows was acquired by the Avalon Publishing Group. Its entire list was incorporated into the Thunder's Mouth Press imprint of Avalon, of which Oakes became publisher. Thunder's Mouth Press itself was acquired in 2007 by the Perseus Books Group
. Oakes then became executive editor at Atlas & Company under James Atlas
; he is now co-publisher of OR Books
. Perseus stopped publishing books under the Thunder's Mouth imprint in May 2007.
Known as 4W8W or "Four Walls", the company was notable for its dual commitment to progressive politics and adventurous, edgy literary fiction. Among its more significant contemporary authors were Steve Aylett
, Jerome Charyn
, Andrei Codrescu
, Richard Condon
, Sue Coe
, R. Crumb, Paul Di Filippo
, Cory Doctorow
, Annie Ernaux
, Andrea Dworkin
, Allen Ginsberg
, Abbie Hoffman
, Margo Howard-Howard
, Gordon Lish
, Harvey Pekar
, Rudy Rucker
, Lucius Shepard
, Sasha Sokolov
and Edward D. Wood, Jr. It also had a line of "modern classics," which included authors such as Nelson Algren
, Sherwood Anderson
, George Plimpton
and Sloan Wilson
.
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. Its debut occurred in the fall of 1987, under the direction of two young editors, John G. H. Oakes and Daniel Simon
Daniel Simon
Daniel Simon is a German concept designer and automotive futurist best known for his visionary book Cosmic Motors.-Early life:Simon was raised in the north of Germany and obtained his degree in Vehicle Design .-Automotive career:He began his design career in 1999 at Volkswagen under the control...
. (Simon had previously had an imprint under the same name at Writers and Readers Publishing.) In 1995, Oakes and Simon parted ways. Oakes remained as publisher and Simon went on to found Seven Stories Press
Seven Stories Press
Seven Stories Press is an independent publishing company. Located in New York City, the company was founded by editor Dan Simon in 1995 after he parted company with Four Walls Eight Windows. The company was named for its seven founding authors: Annie Ernaux, Gary Null, the estate of Nelson Algren,...
. In 2004, Four Walls Eight Windows was acquired by the Avalon Publishing Group. Its entire list was incorporated into the Thunder's Mouth Press imprint of Avalon, of which Oakes became publisher. Thunder's Mouth Press itself was acquired in 2007 by the Perseus Books Group
Perseus Books Group
Perseus Books Group is an American publishing company founded in 1996 by investor Frank Pearl. It was named Publisher of the Year in 2007 by Publishers Weekly magazine for its role in taking on publishers formerly distributed by Publishers Group West and acquiring Avalon Publishing Group.In January...
. Oakes then became executive editor at Atlas & Company under James Atlas
James Atlas
James Atlas , is the president of Atlas & Company, publishers, and founding editor of the Penguin Lives Series.A Harvard graduate, Rhodes Scholar, and onetime contributor to The New Yorker, he was an editor at The New York Times Magazine for many years.He has edited volumes of poetry and has...
; he is now co-publisher of OR Books
OR Books
OR Books is a New York-based independent publishing house founded by two veterans of the publishing industry, John Oakes and Colin Robinson, in 2009. The company, a "digital upstart", claims to offer a revolutionary approach to publishing by printing on demand, selling directly to the customer,...
. Perseus stopped publishing books under the Thunder's Mouth imprint in May 2007.
Known as 4W8W or "Four Walls", the company was notable for its dual commitment to progressive politics and adventurous, edgy literary fiction. Among its more significant contemporary authors were Steve Aylett
Steve Aylett
Steve Aylett is a satirical science fiction and slipstream author of several bizarro books. He is renowned for his colorful satire attacking the manipulations of authority, and for having reams of amusing epigrams and non-sequiturs only tangentially related to what little linear plot the books...
, Jerome Charyn
Jerome Charyn
Jerome Charyn is an award-winning American author. With nearly 50 published works, Charyn has earned a long-standing reputation as an inventive and prolific chronicler of real and imagined American life...
, Andrei Codrescu
Andrei Codrescu
Andrei Codrescu is a Romanian-born American poet, novelist, essayist, screenwriter, and commentator for National Public Radio. He was Mac Curdy Distinguished Professor of English at Louisiana State University from 1984 until his retirement in 2009....
, Richard Condon
Richard Condon
Richard Thomas Condon was a prolific and popular American political novelist whose satiric works were generally presented in the form of thrillers or semi-thrillers...
, Sue Coe
Sue Coe
Sue Coe is an English artist and illustrator working primarily in drawing and printmaking, often in the form of illustrated books and comics. She grew up close to a slaughterhouse and developed a passion to stop cruelty to animals. Coe studied at the Royal College of Art in London, lived in New...
, R. Crumb, Paul Di Filippo
Paul Di Filippo
Paul Di Filippo is an American science fiction writer. He has been published in Postscripts...
, Cory Doctorow
Cory Doctorow
Cory Efram Doctorow is a Canadian-British blogger, journalist, and science fiction author who serves as co-editor of the blog Boing Boing. He is an activist in favour of liberalising copyright laws and a proponent of the Creative Commons organization, using some of their licences for his books...
, Annie Ernaux
Annie Ernaux
Annie Ernaux is a French writer.She won the Prix Renaudot in 1984 for her book La Place, an autobiographical narrative focusing on her relationship with her father and her experiences growing up in a small town in France, and her subsequent process of moving into adulthood and away from her...
, Andrea Dworkin
Andrea Dworkin
Andrea Rita Dworkin was an American radical feminist and writer best known for her criticism of pornography, which she argued was linked to rape and other forms of violence against women....
, Allen Ginsberg
Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression...
, Abbie Hoffman
Abbie Hoffman
Abbot Howard "Abbie" Hoffman was a political and social activist who co-founded the Youth International Party ....
, Margo Howard-Howard
Margo Howard-Howard
Margo Howard-Howard was a New York City drag queen who wrote memoirs titled I Was a White Slave in Harlem shortly before his death...
, Gordon Lish
Gordon Lish
Gordon Jay Lish is an American writer. As a literary editor, he championed many American authors, particularly Raymond Carver, Barry Hannah, Amy Hempel, and Richard Ford.-Early life and family:...
, Harvey Pekar
Harvey Pekar
Harvey Lawrence Pekar was an American underground comic book writer, music critic and media personality, best known for his autobiographical American Splendor comic series. In 2003, the series inspired a critically acclaimed film adaptation of the same name.Pekar described American Splendor as "an...
, Rudy Rucker
Rudy Rucker
Rudolf von Bitter Rucker is an American mathematician, computer scientist, science fiction author, and philosopher, and is one of the founders of the cyberpunk literary movement. The author of both fiction and non-fiction, he is best known for the novels in the Ware Tetralogy, the first two of...
, Lucius Shepard
Lucius Shepard
Lucius Shepard is an American writer. Classified as a science fiction and fantasy writer, he often leans into other genres, such as magical realism. His work is infused with a political and historical sensibility and an awareness of literary antecedents...
, Sasha Sokolov
Sasha Sokolov
Sasha Sokolov is a paradoxical writer of Russian literature....
and Edward D. Wood, Jr. It also had a line of "modern classics," which included authors such as Nelson Algren
Nelson Algren
Nelson Algren was an American writer.-Early life:Algren was born Nelson Ahlgren Abraham in Detroit, Michigan, the son of Goldie and Gerson Abraham. At the age of three he moved with his parents to Chicago, Illinois where they lived in a working-class, immigrant neighborhood on the South Side...
, Sherwood Anderson
Sherwood Anderson
Sherwood Anderson was an American novelist and short story writer. His most enduring work is the short story sequence Winesburg, Ohio. Writers he has influenced include Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, John Steinbeck, J. D. Salinger, and Amos Oz.-Early life:Anderson was born in Clyde, Ohio,...
, George Plimpton
George Plimpton
George Ames Plimpton was an American journalist, writer, editor, and actor. He is widely known for his sports writing and for helping to found The Paris Review.-Early life:...
and Sloan Wilson
Sloan Wilson
Sloan Wilson was an American author.-Reporter:Born in Norwalk, Connecticut, Wilson graduated from Harvard University in 1942. He served in World War II, serving in the United States Coast Guard, commanding a naval trawler on the Greenland patrol and an army supply ship in the Pacific Ocean.After...
.