Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. is a New York publishing house, founded by Alfred A. Knopf, Sr. in 1915. It was acquired by Random House in 1960 and is now part of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group at Random House,^[1] which has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann. The publishing house is known for its borzoi trademark (shown at right), which was designed by co-founder Blanche Knopf. Many of its hardcover books later appear as Vintage paperbacks. Vintage is a sister imprint under the Knopf Publishing Group. In late 2008 and early 2009, the Knopf Publishing Group merged with the Doubleday Publishing Group to form the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.^[2]

History[link]

Knopf was founded in 1915 and officially incorporated in 1918, with Alfred Knopf as president, Blanche Knopf as vice-president, and Samuel Knopf as treasurer. Blanche and Alfred traveled abroad regularly and were known for publishing European, Asian, and Latin American writers in addition to leading American literary trends. Samuel Knopf died in 1932. William A. Koshland joined the company in 1934, and worked with the firm for more than fifty years, rising to take the positions of President and Chairman of the Board. Blanch became President in 1957 when Alfred became Chairman of the Board, and worked steadily for the firm until her death in 1966. Alfred Knopf retired in 1972, becoming chairman emeritus of the firm until his death in 1984.

In 1923 Knopf also started publishing periodicals, beginning with The American Mercury, founded by H. L. Mencken and George Jean Nathan, which it published through 1934. Knopf also produced a quarterly, The Borzoi Quarterly, for the purpose of promoting new books.

Blanche Knopf visited South America in 1942, so the firm could start producing texts from there. She was one of the first publishers to visit Europe after World War II. Her trips, and those of other editors, brought in new talent from Europe, South America, and Asia. Alfred traveled to Brazil in 1961, which spurred a corresponding interest on his part in South America. Their son, Alfred "Pat" Jr. was hired on as secretary and trade books manager after the war. Other influential editors at Knopf included Harold Strauss (Japanese literature), Herbert Weinstock (biography of musical jargon composers), Judith Jones (culinary texts), as well as Angus Cameron, Charles Elliott, Lee Goerner, Robert Gottlieb, Ashbel Green, Carol Brown Janeway, Michael Magzis, Anne McCormick, Nancy Nicholas, Daniel Okrent, Regina Ryan, Sophie Wilkins, and Vicky Wilson. Knopf also employed literary scouts to good advantage.^[3]

A publisher of hardcover fiction and nonfiction, Knopf's list of authors includes John Banville, Max Beerbohm, Carl Bernstein, Willa Cather, Julia Child, Bill Clinton, Michael Crichton, Joan Didion, Fernanda Eberstadt, Bret Easton Ellis, Joseph J. Ellis, James Ellroy, Anne Frank, Lee H. Hamilton, Carl Hiaasen, Kazuo Ishiguro, Thomas Kean, John Keegan, Christopher Lasch, Jack London, Thomas Mann, Gabriel García Márquez, Gabriella De Ferrari, Cormac McCarthy, H. L. Mencken, Toni Morrison, Alice Munro, Haruki Murakami, P. D. Ouspensky, Christopher Paolini, Henry Petroski, Ezra Pound, Anne Rice, Dorothy Richardson, Susan Swan, Donna Tartt, Anne Tyler, John Updike, Andrew Vachss, Carl Van Vechten, James D. Watson, Edmund White and Elinor Wylie. At least 17 Nobel Prize and 47 Pulitzer Prize winning authors have been published by Knopf, though they have also passed at times on subsequently notable books.^[4]

Since its founding, Knopf has paid close attention to design and typography,^[5] employing notable designers and typographers including William Addison Dwiggins, Harry Ford, Steven Heller, Chip Kidd, Bruce Rogers, Rudolf Ruzicka, and Beatrice Warde.

Knopf published textbooks until 1988, when Random House's schools and colleges division was sold to McGraw-Hill^[6].

In 1991, Knopf revived the "Everyman's Library" series, originally published in England in the early twentieth century. This series consists of classics of world literature in affordable hardcover editions. The series has grown over the years to include lines of Children's Classics and Pocket Poets.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Knopf Doubleday - The official website of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group and its imprints.
• The Borzoi Reader Online - Knopf's official website.
• Random House Speakers Bureau - Random House's Lecture Bureau.
• Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Records, 1873-1996 at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin

Jim Knopf, nicknamed Jim Button ("Knopf" meaning "button" in German), is considered by many to be one of the "fathers" of shareware (so named by fellow software veteran Peter Norton). As an IBM employee, he wrote a program to help with a local church congregation. When demand for his program consumed too much of his time, he quit IBM and created Buttonware. He released his first program, PC-File (a flat file database), in late 1982 as "user supported software". He has been quoted as saying this expression not only reflected the optional payment model, but also that comments from users drove the development of later releases.

He collaborated with PC-Talk (communications software) developer Andrew Fluegelman to adopt similar names (PC-File was originally "Easy-File"), and prices, for their initial shareware offerings; they also agreed to mention each other's products in their program's documentation. Fluegelman referred to this distribution method as "freeware".

A few months later (early 1983), Bob Wallace followed suit, coining the term "shareware" for his similarly marketed product, PC-Write, a word processor.

As of 2007^[update], of the three founders of shareware, Knopf is the only one still alive, despite having a near-death experience in 1992, when his heart stopped beating briefly while experiencing a heart attack.^[1] Shortly thereafter, he sold all his business assets and retired to the Pacific Northwest.

He currently enjoys photography and spending time with his family.

See also[link]

• List of programmers
• Shareware
• Free Software

References[link]

External links[link]

• The beginnings of shareware
• Interview with Jim "Button" Knopf
• An article by Jim Knopf
• Article about Jim "Button" Knopf, from Dr. Dobbs Journal

This biographical article relating to a computer specialist is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Jan Delay
Background information
Birth name	Jan Phillip Eißfeldt
Also known as	Eißfeldt, Eizi Eiz, Boba Ffett (among others)
Born	(1976-08-25) August 25, 1976 (age 35)
Origin	Hamburg, Germany
Genres	German hip hop, reggae, funk
Occupations	Singer-songwriter
Years active	1991–present
Labels	Vertigo Berlin
Associated acts	Beginner La Boom Sam Ragga Band
Website	www.jandelay.de

Jan Delay (born Jan Phillip Eißfeldt; 25 August 1976) is a German singer, songwriter and producer whose stylistic range includes mainly hip hop, reggae, dub and funk. An accomplished solo artist, he became known to the public as a member of the German bands Absolute Beginner and La Boom. He performed with his group 'Disko No.1' at the grand final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 in Düsseldorf, Germany.

Biography[link]

Delay was born in Hamburg on August, 25 1976. He attended the bilingual Helene-Lange-Gymnasium from 1986 to 1995. In the 1990s, he became known as one third of the pioneering German hip hop group Beginner. His stage name is a reference to Young Deenay, a pop music act in the 90s: the delay/echo is an important effect in reggae and dancehall music.

Jan Delay's most significant trademark is his somewhat nasal voice. He also frequently changes his stage name depending on his current music style, mood, and collaboration partners. Bald, he often wears a hat and sunglasses.

Eimsbush label[link]

In 1997, Jan Delay founded his own record label Eimsbush together with partners from the Hamburg hip-hop scene. The label's main goal was to support and guide fresh underground talents and pave their way into the music business without having them "selling out" to the major labels.^{[citation needed]} The label was initiated by the German hip hop scene while it was going through a boom phase in the mid and late 90s, which led to "every Horst [jerk] being allowed to rap if only he can hold up a mic" (Jan Delay, MTV Germany, 2007). As a result, real talent stepped back for fear of being seen as sellouts by the underground hip-hop scene.

The label was shut down in 2003 due to financial reasons and as a result of the "naive idea of just believing in talent outside the mainstream" (Jan Delay, MTV Germany, 2007). Former partners of Eimsbush later collaborated with Delay, founded their own labels, agencies, or signed with other labels.

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

• 2001 - Searching for the Jan Soul Rebels
• 2006 - Mercedes Dance
• 2007 - Searching - the Dubs
• 2007 - Mercedes Dance - Live
• 2009 - Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Soul (GER: 23rd best-selling album of 2009 )
• 2010 - Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Soul - Live

Singles[link]

• 1999 - "Irgendwie, irgendwo, irgendwann" — (cover version of Nena's song of the same name)
• 2001 - "Ich möchte nicht, dass ihr meine Lieder singt"
• 2001 - "Vergiftet"
• 2002 - "Die Welt steht still" (Sam Ragga Band featuring Jan Delay)
• 2006 - "Klar"
• 2006 - "Für immer und dich"
• 2007 - "Feuer"
• 2007 - "Im Arsch" (featuring Udo Lindenberg)
• 2007 - "Türlich, Türlich" / Word up
• 2008 - "Ganz anders" (featuring Udo Lindenberg)
• 2009 - "Oh Jonny"
• 2009 - "Disko"

External links[link]

• Official website
• Portrait of Jan Delay at laut.de (German)
• Review of Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Soul(in English)