founded 1917 founder albert boni and horace liveright country of origin united states headquarters location new york city publication types books official website www.modernlibrary.com the modern library is an american publishing company . founded in 1917 by albert boni and horace liveright as an imprint of their publishing company boni & liveright it was purchased in 1925 by bennett cerf and donald klopfer . random house began in 1927 as a subsidiary of the modern library but eventually became the parent company . citation needed contents 1 recent history 2 modern library lists 3 references 4 bibliography 5 external links recent history edit the modern library originally published only hardbound books . 1 in 1950 it began publishing the modern library college editions a forerunner of its current series of paperback classics . from 1955 to 1960 the company published a high quality numbered paperback series but discontinued it in 1960 when the series was merged into the newly acquired vintage paperbacks group . the modern library homepage states in 1992 on the occasion of the modern library s seventy fifth anniversary random house embarked on an ambitious project to refurbish the series . we revived the torchbearer emblem that cerf and klopfer commissioned in 1925 from lucian bernhard . the promethean bearer of enlightenment known informally around the old modern library offices as the dame running away from bennett cerf was redesigned several times over the years most notably by rockwell kent . 2 in 1998 novelist david ebershoff became the modern library s new publishing director . ebershoff managed the imprint until 2005 when he resigned to concentrate on his own writing and to become editor at large at random house . citation needed in september 2000 the modern library initiated a newly designed paperback classics series . six new titles are published in the series on the second tuesday of each month . citation needed modern library lists edit main article modern library 100 best novels at its onset the modern library identified itself as the modern library of the world s best books . in keeping with that brand identity in 1998 the editors created a list they called the modern library list of best 20th century novels numbering 100 titles . plus they conducted an unscientific internet poll of public opinion then produced a readers list . the lists were actually restricted to works in english but titles of the lists do not represent this and little attention was paid to that fact in publicity for the lists . the top ten of the editors list is shown here and the two 100 best novels lists are linked below . according to a new york times article about the list executives at random house said they hoped that as the century drew to a close their list would encourage public debate about the greatest works of fiction of the last hundred years thus both increasing awareness of the modern library and stimulating sales of novels the group publishes . 3 both lists have incurred criticism . their ranking system concerned many professional scholars and critics . the board members themselves who did not create the rankings and were unaware of it until the list was published expressed disappointment and puzzlement . 4 there are only eight or nine women on the list some very influential works are ranked below works of questionable literary merit and the works of major writers from many english speaking countries apart from the usa and england such as australia canada india and south africa have been ignored . citation needed there were also hypotheses that the modern library merely made a selection based on its stocklist . 5 a. s. byatt the well known english novelist who was on the board called the list typically american . citation needed the list was compiled via approval voting by sending each board member a list of 440 pre selected books from the modern library catalogue and asking each member to place a check beside novels they wished to choose . then the works with the most votes were ranked the highest and ties were decided arbitrarily by random house publishers . this explains surprising results like the 5 placement of brave new world 1931 which most of the judges agreed belonged somewhere on the list but much lower than the very top . david ebershoff the modern library division s publishing director stated in a follow up the people who were drawn to go to the modern library web site and compelled to vote have a certain enthusiasm about books and their favourite books that many people don t so that the voting population is skewed . 6 in addition people were allowed to vote repeatedly once per day making the poll a measure of how much effort people would put into promoting their favorite books . others have been more direct in their descriptions of the results ; librarian robert teeter remarks that the ballot boxes were stuffed by cultists . 7 the reader s list in a way criticizes itself with the inclusion of darrell huff s how to lie with statistics 1954 in the best non fiction category . citation needed references edit gidding gary december 6 1992 . why i carry a torch for the modern library . the new york times . retrieved may 23 2011 . about . modern library . u july 20 1998 article in the nyt ulysses on top among 100 best novels streitfeld david . the lowdown on the literary list . washington post . rubenstein steve july 21 1998 . sound and fury over top novel list n.y. publisher s selections signify little critics say . sfgate . opinion . caj.ca . fall 2002 . great books . interleaves.org . bibliography edit lise jaillant modernism middlebrow and the literary canon the modern library series london pickering & chatto 2014 gordon b. neavill the modern library series format and design 1917 1977 printing history 1 1979 26 37 . http digitalcommons.wayne.edu slisfrp 56 . gordon b. neavill the modern library series and american cultural life journal of library history 16 spring 1981 241 52 . http digitalcommons.wayne.edu slisfrp 54 . gordon b. neavill publishing in wartime the modern library series during the second world war library trends 55 winter 2007 583 96 . http digitalcommons.wayne.edu slisfrp 62 . gordon b. neavill canonicity reprint publishing and copyright in the culture of the publisher s series vol . 1 authors publishers and the shaping of taste edited by john spiers basingstroke hampshire ; new york palgrave macmillan 2011 pp. 88 105 . http digitalcommons.wayne.edu slisfrp 52 jay satterfield the world s best books taste culture and the modern library university of massachusetts press 2002 . external links edit official website best books modern library cnn 100 best novels list draws heavy dose of criticism collecting the modern library history of the modern library speech by henry toledano on the trail of the torch bearer an interview with henry toledano on the trail of the torch bearer an interview with scot kamins v t e penguin random house random house usa crown crown broadway harmony hogarth three rivers ten speed watson guptill knopf doubleday knopf doubleday everyman s library us pantheon schocken vintage random house ballantine bantam dell del rey dial modern library spectra villard children s beginner books golden information books on tape fodor s living language the princeton review prima games uk cornerstone hutchinson random house william heinemann ebury bbc books ebury del rey fodor s rider virgin books 90 % transworld bantam doubleday vintage publishing the bodley head chatto & windus harvill secker jonathan cape vintage canada mcclelland & stewart douglas gibson books tundra books new canadian library other companhia das letras 45 % penguin random house grupo editorial alfaguara penguin group uk dorling kindersley hamish hamilton ladybird penguin penguin classics puffin rough guides viking warne us alpha author solutions authorhouse iuniverse trafford xlibris dutton penguin putnam riverhead sentinel tarcher viking berkley publishing group ace berkley new american library jove plume roc children s dial young readers dutton children s firebird g. p. putnam s sons grosset & dunlap philomel price stern sloan puffin warne parents bertelsmann pearson plc retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title modern library & oldid 738343963 categories bertelsmann subsidiariesbook publishing companies of the united statesseries of bookspublishing companies established in 19171917 establishments in new yorkhidden categories all articles with unsourced statementsarticles with unsourced statements from february 2016articles with unsourced statements from march 2007official website different in wikidata and wikipedia navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages catal espa olportugu s edit links this page was last modified on 8 september 2016 at 11 18 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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