Mercury House (publishers)

Mercury House, a project of Words Given Wings Literary Arts Project, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation, is an independent trade book publishing company, based in San Francisco, California. The press is distributed by Perseus Books Group and Small Press Distribution.

The press has published over 130 titles. Notable authors include Harold Brodkey, Carol Emshwiller, Shulamith Hareven, William Kittredge, and Leonard Michaels. Literary translations have included work from Alejo Carpentier, George Sand, Pierre Michon, Philippe Forest, and Juan Rodolfo Wilcock. In addition, the press has published books of essay, poetry, and Holocaust and Environmental studies by David Meltzer, Dale Pendell, Ken Lamberton, and Lucille Eichengreen. The press also published a series of neglected literary classics by authors such as I.U. Tarchetti, Lewis Carroll, Henry Handel Richardson, and Horace Walpole. For several years Mercury House was the official publisher of the Nobel Prize Lecture and the National Society of Film Critics' annual compendium of reviews.

The press was founded in 1986 by William M. Brinton and Alev Croutier and granted nonprofit status in 1994. Governed by a Board of Directors and run by an Executive Director, the press has been funded by individual and corporate donations, and by grants from foundations including the California Arts Council, the Lannan Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the San Francisco Arts Commission. Roughly three-quarters of its revenue is generated through sales.

References

• Mercury House