posted on 15 Dec 2024

Strange Bird: The Albatross Press and the Third Reich by Michele K. Troy

I’d be willing to bet that even the vast majority of those who profess never to read will have heard of Penguin Books as a brand. The paperbacks have entered our popular culture so extensively that Penguin is often used as a synonym for soft cover books in general - rather like Hoover became the popular synonym for any vacuum cleaner.

But how many readers - even the enthusiastic ones - have heard of their European predecessor and likely model, Albatross Books? Until I came across Michele Troy’s Strange Bird and, at the same time, two examples of the books they produced, neither had I.

Strange Bird is a detailed and academic investigation of the imprint’s history and all the more impressive because it’s almost an act of biblio-archaeology. I say this because the majority of the paper records that would usually be used to reconstruct the history of a company like Albatross were destroyed during the course of the Second World War and so Troy has to mine what she can from the shadows of what remains.

Germany in 1933 might not seem like an auspicious time to launch a new venture dedicated to the publication of English language literature for a German and European audience but that’s exactly what Albatross decided to do. It was also an audacious move given that is market – developed to provide English language authors with a way of copyrighting their work in Europe – was dominated by an already powerful and well-established publisher, Tauchnitz. And, as if to make the task even more improbable given the rise of Nazism in Germany, Albatross was led by John Holroyd-Reece, who was half-English and half-German and a Jew, Kurt Enoch, also a Jew and a former Tauchnitz employee, Max Wegner.

To add to Michele Troy’s complex task of reconstruction, these three dynamos behind the Albatross project set up an insanely complex publishing and distribution network which was designed, it seems, to make their business so opaque that they were even able to outflank the Nazis who would inevitably have viewed what they were doing with hostility. Indeed, they were so successful that they were able to continue their business right through to 1944.

The impact of Albatross books on readers in the UK or its colonial colonies was naturally very limited because their books were never licenced to be sold in those territories. But the clear inspiration it must have provided to Allan Lane as he considered his Penguin project is obvious. Albatross was successful in its battle with Tauchnitz because it developed a very clear aesthetic – their books were colour-coded for subjects and the jackets simply designed around an albatross motif and they threw the very plain and dull Tauchnitz volumes into the shade. This I think must have been an important signal to the emerging Penguin idea given that colour-coding of subjects became a key feature of the British project too.

I’ve said this is a densely argued and academically rigorous book but Troy has made it something of a detective thriller in terms of following the key characters through their travails and this makes it very readable for those with only a lay interest in books. If you love the history of books and found yourself fascinated by the story of Penguin which you will find written about here, this is a book you’ll want to seek out.

There is a paperback that seems to be available from online sources for a little under £10 but the Yale hardback – which is a lovely production – will set you back over double that.

 

Terry Potter

December 2024