When the Swedish Academy awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in Literature to German novelist Herta Müller on Oct. 8, Northwestern University Press — the publisher of two of Müller’s books — toasted the success of its now famous author-in-translation. A week after the announcement, the euphoria has also given in to questions over contracting and the Press’s right to reprint Müller’s books.
Now University Press and Müller’s other publishers are trying to reprint the translations. But according to Mike Levine, acquisitions editor for University Press, the ownership of rights to each novel is murky.
“The initial term of agreements had run out [for Müller’s two books],” Levine said. “The language of the contracts was unclear in determining what rights we still had to print, either. We have verified that we definitely still have rights for one—The Land of Green Plums.”
University Press published the paperback edition of The Land of Green Plums, which many consider to be Müller’s best novel, in 1998, as well as the original hardcover translation of Traveling on One Leg in 1989.
It plans to reprint the paperback editions of The Land of Green Plums and is determining its right to print Traveling on One Leg.
Meanwhile, the Macmillan Publishers imprint Holt/Metropolitan will reissue hardcover translations of The Land of Green Plums and The Appointment, while Serpent’s Tail will have a new edition of The Passport out Oct. 19, according to the Associated Press.
The Swedish Academy awarded her the Nobel Prize for depicting the “landscape of the dispossessed” with “the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose,” the Nobel judges said. She is only the 12th woman to have won the Nobel Prize in Literature in the award’s 108-year history.
Müller, born a German minority in Romania, lived under the Communist dictatorship of Romanian president Nicolae Ceausescu until she fled the country in 1987. Her novels and poems often address living in a dictatorial regime.
Translated versions of her novels were rare when University Press first published them, but the press saw literary and academic value in her work.
“A good number of Nobel winners actually fall closer to the bottom in their popular appeal among readers of literature,” Levine said. “We expect them to sell well enough to keep the press in business, but our main concern is that these books make a contribution to literature of intellectual significance.”
Müller is not the only Nobel Laureate among the university’s authors-in-translation. In 2002, the Swedish Academy gave the award to Hungarian writer Imre Kertesz, who published novels only through Northwestern University Press.
Because academic press companies focus on works that specifically hold intellectual or academic significance, their products are highly valued and often the subjects of major prizes, Levine said. Last year Tracy Letts, another University Press author, won the Pulitzer Prize in Drama, and Martin Duberman was a Pulitzer finalist.
“Books that commercial presses publish may not have much to contribute [intellectually] but can benefit press’s balance sheet,” Levine said. “We don’t have any books that we publish solely for financial gain.”