Public Affairs Press ( – mid-1980s) was a book publisher in Washington, D.C., owned and often edited by Morris Bartel Schnapper (1912–1999).
History
According to notional successor Peter Osnos of the 1997-founded PublicAffairs: For fifty years, the banner of Public Affairs Press was carried by its owner, Morris B. Schnapper, who published Gandhi, Nasser, Toynbee, Truman, and about 1,500 other authors... His legacy will endure in the books to come.
Supreme Court Case
In 1961, Pub. Affairs Associates, Inc. v. Rickover, 369 U.S. 111 (1962), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that the circuit court's decision should be vacated because the facts of the case were too unclear. Remanded to district court to create an "adequate and full-bodied record."
The case concerned whether or not speeches written by Admiral Hyman G. Rickover in the course of his duties to the federal government of the United States were copyrightable. Generally, works of the United States government are not. The case spent nine years in litigation.
After the case was passed back to a district court, the Register of Copyrights, the Librarian of Congress, the Secretary of the Navy, the Secretary of Defence, and the Atomic Energy Commissioners were all added as defendants. The court ruled in Admiral Rickover's and their favor, saying that speechwriting should be considered "private business from start to finish."Pub. Affairs Associates, Inc. v. Rickover, 268 F. Supp. 444 (D.D.C. 1967)
Ranking In 1983, according to The Washington Post, there were three major book publishers in Washington, D.C.: Acropolis Books, founded 1960 by Alphons J. Hackl (owner of Colortone Press) EPM Publications, founded by Evelyn P. Metzger (formerly a Doubleday representative) Public Affairs Books, founded 1944 by Morris Bartel Schnapper Potomac Books Seven Locks Press Robert J. Brady Reston Publishing Matthew Brady Aspen Systems Congressional Information Service Bureau of National Affairs (BNA)
(Note: Books below under "Works," gleaned from the Library of Congress, show the publisher's name as "Public Affairs Press" as far back as 1940.)
The Post called founder Morris B. Schnapper a "redoubtable gadfly."
American Council on Public Affairs
In the 1940s, Schnapper served on the staff of the American Council on Public Affairs as executive secretary and editor. The organization had "advisory assistance" in various fields from experts: Foreign Affairs: Stephen Duggan, Esther Brunauer, Clark Eichelberger, Max Ascoli, Walter H. Lockwood, Brooks Ebeny, Ralph H. Lutz, Edgar Mowrer, W. C. Johnstone Political Science: Kenneth Colegrove, W. Y. Elliott, Ernest Griffith, Lowell Mellett, Frederic Ogg, C. J. Friedrich, William E. Mosher, Ernest K. Lindley, Robert J. Harris Economics: Sumner Slichter, Paul H. Douglas, Edwin E. Witte, Leon C. Manhall, G. T. Schwenning, David Cushman Coyle, Arthur E. Burns, Jacob Viner, Eveline Bumi, Herman Somera, George Soule Sociology: William Ogburn, R. M. Maciver, Read Bain, Bruce Melvin, Mark May, Willard Waller, Harold A. Phelps, Edward All1worth Ro11, E. S. Bogardus Social Welfare: Paul Kellogg, Walter West, Frank P. Graham, E. C. Lindeman, Clarence Pickett Labor: John B. Andrews, Leo Wolman, W. Jett Lauck, Hilda Smith, Elizabeth Christman, Willard Uphaus, Marion H. Hedges, Paul Brissenden, Frank Palmer Education: George Zook, Clyde Miller, Frederick Redefer, Floyd Reeves, Chester Williams, William G. Carr, Carl Milam Latin America: Ernest Galarza, George Howland Cox, Rollin Atwood, J. D. M. Ford, John I. B. McCulloch, Samuel Guy Inman History: Guy Stanton Ford, Harry Elmer Barnes, Sidney B. Fay, Richard Heindel, Bernadotte Schmitt Public Opinion: Harold Lasswell, Peter Odegard, Delbert Clark, Harold Gosnell, Harwood Childs Religion: Henry Smith Leiper; Guy Shipler, Frank Kingdon, L. M. Birkhead, James Waterman Wise
Between 1942 and 1946, the American Council on Public Affairs published seven books through Public Affairs Press: Prelude to invasion; an account based upon official reports by Henry L. Stimson, Secretary of War (1944) American policy toward Palestine by Carl J. Friedrich (1944) Economics of demobilization by E. Jay Howenstine Jr. (1944) Job guide, a handbook of official information about employment opportunities in leading industries by Sydney H. Kasper (1945) Educational opportunities for veterans by Francis J. Brown (1946) Guide to public affairs organizations, with notes on public affairs informational materials by Charles R. Read and Samuel Marble (1946) Palestine: problem and promise; an economic study by Robert R. Nathan, Oscar Gass, Daniel Creamer (1946)
Location
According to Library of Congress records, Public Affairs Press had offices at 2153 Florida Avenue, NW, Washington, DC, between 1940 and 1948.
In 1962, Public Affairs Press had offices at 419 New Jersey Avenue SE, Washington DC 20003, DC.
Legacy
In 1997, Peter Osnos, when founding PublicAffairs, asked and received permission from Schnapper to name his new publishing house after Public Affairs Books.
Works
By 1983, the Post reported, Public Affairs Press had published some 1,500 books and pamphlets on political-social-economic and historical topics. In 1983, its current catalog listed 100 titles.
Public Affairs Press often had Washington insiders add introductions and similar materials to its book, e.g., prior to their presidencies, introductions by John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Baynes Johnson.
The most published author was Frederick Mayer (1921-2006), an educational scientist, philosopher, and proponent of global humanism who wrote more than sixty books, including eight with Public Affairs Press.
The Library of Congress has the following nearly 400 books recorded as published in Washington, DC, by Public Affairs Press:
1940s: Guide to America; a treasury of information about its states, cities, parks, and historical points of interest (no date) Guide to America: pictorial supplement (no date) Manual of ancient history by Elmer Louis Kayser. (1940) Internal check and control for small companies by M. E. Murphy (circa 1940) Progress of Pan-Americanism, a historical survey of Latin-American opinion, translated and edited by T. H. Reynolds (1943) Going back to civilian life by the American Council on Public Affairs (1944) Cartels; challenge to a free world by Wendell Berge (1944) American policy toward Palestine by Carl J. Friedrich (1944) Economics of demobilization by E. Jay Howenstine Jr. (1944) Industry-government cooperation; a study of the participation of advisory committees in public administration by Carl Henry Monsees (1944) Korea: forgotten nation by Robert T. Oliver (1944) Surplus war property: official documents of the Office of war information and the Surplus war property administration (1944) Prelude to invasion; an account based upon official reports by Henry L. Stimson, Secretary of War (1944) Reorganization of Congress: a report of the Committee on Congress of the American political science association (1945) National health agencies, a survey with especial reference to voluntary associations by Harold M. Cavins (1945) Post-war markets; a guide based upon official information prepared by the Bureau of foreign and domestic commerce, edited by E. Jay Howenstine (1945) Job guide, a handbook of official information about employment opportunities in leading industries by Sydney H. Kasper (1945) Post-war jobs, a guide to current problems and future opportunities by Press Research, Inc. (1945) Washington's dining out guide; forthright notes about the capital's restaurants, hotel dining rooms, night clubs, cafeterias, etc. by Morris Bartel Schnapper (1945) Our American neighbors by US Office of inter-American affairs (1945) American handbook by US Office of inter-American affairs (1945) Enemy Japan by US Office of inter-American affairs (1945) Veterans information directory; a guide to national, state, and local agencies through which ex-servicemen can obtain government benefits and private aid in the fields of business, employment, education, agriculture, social service, rehabilitation, etc. (1946) Educational opportunities for veterans by Francis J. Brown (1946) Endless horizons by Vannevar Bush (1946) Palestine: problem and promise; an economic study by Robert R. Nathan, Oscar Gass, Daniel Creamer (1946) Guide to public affairs organizations, with notes on public affairs informational materials by Charles R. Read and Samuel Marble (1946) Unions and veterans by Anne Ramsay Somers (1946) American names, a guide to the origin of place names in the United States by Henry Gannett (1947) UNESCO: its purpose and its philosophy by Julian Huxley (1947) Dictionary of international affairs (1947) Full employment & free enterprise by John Herman Groesbeck Pierson (1947) Reason and rubbish about the Negro, a Southerner's view by Elta Campbell Roberts (1947) Palestine and the United Nations: prelude to solution by Jacob Robinson (1947) Fishery resources of the United States, edited by Lionel A. Walford (1947) Book publishing in Soviet Russia; an official survey based upon the data of the All-Union Book Department, translated by Helen Lambert Shadick (1948) Mineral resources of the United States (1948) Soviet views on the post-war world economy; an official critique of Eugene Varga's "Changes in the economy of capitalism resulting from the Second World War", translated by Leo Gruliow (1948) Pattern of Soviet democracy by Georgiĭ Fedorovich Aleksandrov (1948) Wool tariffs and American policy by Donald Mayer Blinken (1948) Marketing of surplus war property by James Allan Cook (1948) Guide to American business directories by Marjorie V. Davis (1948) Ideological content of Soviet literature by Aleksandr Mikhaĭlovich Egolin, translated by Mary Kriger (1948) Gandhi's autobiography by Mahatma Gandhi (1948) Role of the Soviet court by Ivan Terentʹevich Goli︠a︡kov (1948) T.V.A. on the Jordan; proposals for irrigation and hydro-electric development in Palestine by James B. Hays (1948) Rise and fall of third parties, from anti-Masonry to Wallace by William Best Hesseltine (1948) Dictionary of labor economics by Byrne Joseph Horton (1948) Dictionary of modern economics by Byrne Joseph Horton (1948) British rule in Palestine by Bernard Joseph (1948) Ideological conflicts in Soviet Russia by Sergeĭ Mitrofanovich Kovalev (1948) Citizen participation in government, a study of county welfare boards by Helen Elizabeth Martz (1948) Soviet interpretation of contemporary American literature by M. Mendelson, translated by Deming D. Brown and Rufus W. Mathewson (1948) Palestine dilemma; Arab rights versus Zionist aspirations by Frank Charles Sakran (1948) Processes of organization and management by Catheryn Seckler-Hudson (1948) Truth about communism by Dorothy Thompson (1948) Prejudice and property, an historic brief against racial covenants by Tom C. Clark and Philip B. Perlman (1948) Economy of the USSR during World War II by Nikolaĭ Alekseevich Voznesenskiĭ (Russian Translation Program of the American Council of Learned Societies) (1948) American men in government, a biographical dictionary and directory of Federal officials, edited by Jerome M. Rosow (1949) Out of the crocodile's mouth; Russian cartoons about the United States from "Krokodil," Moscow's humor magazine, edited by William Nelson (1949) What's doing in ... by Morris Bartel Schnapper (1949) Guide to women's organizations; a handbook about national and international groups by Ellen L. Anderson (1949) You can't win; facts and fallacies about gambling by Ernest Evred Blanche (1949) Western union; a study of the trend toward European unity by Andrew Boyd (1949) Control of the public budget by Vincent J. Browne (1949) People know best: the ballots vs. the polls by Morris L. Ernst and David Loth (1949)