Publisher: Hafner Publishing Co.
People: Oskar Piest
Years: 1947-1963
Related Series: --
Stechert-Hafner got into the paperback game early on, releasing a series of university student-focused, inexpensive paperbacks through its Hafner Publishing Co., starting in 1947. Hafner apparently paused publication of this series in 1953, perhaps just before the quality paperback boom instituted by Doubleday, resuming it later in the 1950s, apparently with more attractive jacket designs in line with publishing trends of the mid- to late-1950s. Evidently the jacket designs were also updated as titles were reprinted, well into the 1970s.
Stechert-Hafner, Importers of Books in All Languages, Is 75 Years Old, PW, Apr. 12, 1947, at 2013-2016 (mentioning that Stechert-Hafner's Hafner Publishing Company will publish at the beginning of the 1947-48 school year a series of standard textbooks known as the Hafner Library of Classics).
New Reprint Series of Classics, ANTIQUARIAN BOOKMAN, at 514 (1948).
The Hafner Library. NEW YORK. The Hafner Publishing Company, a separate division of Stechert-Hafner, Inc., has begun an ambitious publishing program under the name of The Hafner Library of Classics. This series is designed to make available at a reasonable price definitive editions of classics in social and political science, philosophy, religion and criticism. Many of the titles have long been out of print.
The books, however, are not mere reprints but are annotated and edited with an introductory essay by a recognized scholar in the field. Translations are checked and revised. All the titles will be available in both paper-bound and cloth-bound editions.