Pazifische Presse

Ernst Gottlieb and Felix Guggenheim co-founded the Pazifische Presse in Los Angeles in 1942. They produced 11 books, written by German émigrés, between 1942 and 1948, most of them fiction, each printed in limited batches of 150 to 250 copies. The works were bibliophile editions, signed by the authors. It was the only publishing house of that kind on the West Coast and was able to fulfil their mission of ‘[giving] testimony to the eminent cultural force that was expelled by Hitler and which found a future in America.’ Financially, the publishing house was not too successful.

When Gottlieb arrived in the USA in 1938, he worked as a portrait photographer for ten years.
Guggenheim immigrated to the USA in 1938 as well. He was a copyright specialist and a literary agent. From 1930 to 1938 he worked as the head of the Seydel AG publishing house and the Deutsche Buch-Gemeinschaft.He was able to stay in those positions until 1938 even though he was Jewish.

Resources

Location: Los Angeles
Period: 1942-1948
Publisher(s): Felix Guggenheim -- June 6, 1904 Konstanz - June 21, 1979 Beverly Hills/CA; Ernst Gottlieb -- September 27, 1903 Munich - September 5, 1961 Los Angeles
Main Focus: exile literature
Author(s): Lion Feuchtwanger, Franz Werfel, Bruno Frank, Leonhard Frank, Alfred Neumann, Alfred Döblin, Thomas Mann, Friedrich Torberg
Number of Titles Published: 11