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

Saad El-Haddad (Arabic: سعد الحداد‎) (November 26, 1985), better known by his stage names Baba Saad or just Saad, is a German rapper of Lebanese heritage.

Biography[link]

Early life[link]

Baba Saad was born in Lebanon, but came to Germany in 1994. He first lived with his family in Syke, but later moved to Bremen. After his graduation from school, the German rapper Bushido, also known as Sonny Black, took him under his wing.

Career[link]

When Bushido heard Saad rap for the first time, he immediately asked him to participate in the making of Electro Ghetto. In early 2005, Saad was featured alongside Bushido in the joint album Carlo, Cokxxx, Nutten 2, which reached #3 in the German charts. The best-known single was "Nie ein Rapper". Since the summer of 2005, he has been signed to ersguterjunge. At the end of 2005, Saad was featured on Bushido's album Staatsfeind Nr. 1, and continued playing on the tour that followed.

In the spring of 2006, Saad released his own album, called Das Leben ist Saad. He has also appeared on compilations for his label, in which he has both appeared solo and with other members of the label. Saad also has recently been featured on the track "Auge des Sturms" with Azad.

Discography[link]

Solo albums[link]

• 2005: Carlo Cokxxx Nutten II (with Sonny Black)
• 2006: Das Leben ist Saad
• 2008: Saadcore
• 2011: Halunke

Singles[link]

• 2005: Nie ein Rapper feat.Sonny Black: (Carlo Cokxxx Nutten II)
• 2006: Womit hab ich das verdient: (Das Leben ist Saad)
• 2008: Hier geht es nicht um dich: (Saadcore)
• 2008: Regen feat.Bushido: (Saadcore)

Other Release[link]

• 2004: Mein Cock feat.Bushido: (Nie Wieder Maxi Single)
• 2005: Ich halt' die Stellung: (Augenblick Maxi Single)
• 2007: Ausnahmezustand: (Internet-Exclusive)
• 2007: Asphalt Massaker: (Alles Gute kommt von unten Maxi Single)
• 2008: Deutschlands Most Wanted: (Juice Exclusive #83)
• 2009: Mein Job: (Free Track)

External links[link]

• Official Site
• Official FanSite

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

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