Frank Cass: The publisher of Irish Academic Press, Frank Cass, who has died just weeks after his 77th birthday, was a workaholic who was fond of saying that he had never done a day's work in his life.
For him his occupation was a pleasure. Ever smiling, he was, said one of his employees, "one of the happiest men I know because, after his family, his life was his work and his work was his life, and he enjoyed both".
An engaging and warm personality, a raconteur with a great sense of humour, he was blessed with a photographic memory that proved of immeasurable benefit during his career. He was endowed with a natural curiosity about life in all its social and cultural manifestations.
Born in Stamford Hill, London, on July 11th, 1930, to parents of Polish stock, Frank was brought up in a house full of books, and his most abiding pre-war memories were of his trips, two or three times a week, to the local library. Weaned on Beatrix Potter, he felt the whole world was encompassed within the library walls.
When as a 19-year-old he started the first day of his working life as a £3 a week assistant in the Economist Bookshop, London's leading academic bookshop then attached to the London School of Economics, he felt he had achieved his boyhood ambition. It had a clientele of students, lecturers, professors, businessmen and diplomats not only from British universities and companies but also from overseas. He found that he could communicate with and relate to them all.
He left to branch out on his own in 1953. Risking all his savings, £117, he opened a shop in Southampton Row, little more than a hole in the wall measuring just 18ft by 10ft, selling antiquarian academic books. Called simply "Frank Cass", its fascia was painted in the LSE colours, purple, black and yellow.
A description of him in those early days was given by Preston King, a hero of the civil rights movement in the US, who recalled his first visit to Frank's shop in 1958 where he found himself: "face to face with a thin and enthusiastic young man sporting a wonderfully engaging smile and a pocketful of stories and anecdotes.
"He seemed to me to be squirting out of a toothpaste tube; he seemed to erupt within the small space from a mound of books that rose steadily to the ceiling . . . my impression of Frank was always of a person who had a direct primeval interest in and love for the stuff he garnered and sold, and for which there could be no substitute."
Frank ventured into publishing in 1957 reprinting out-of-print academic books that he knew from his university student and lecture clients were in great demand, and from there graduated to publishing new academic books.
Finally, and financially most successfully, he became a publisher of over 60 academic journals that covered a wide field, ranging from education politics and military studies to sport and the environment, from international rights to European security, from legal history to local government. When Frank Cass & Co was sold to Taylor and Francis in 2003, it had published over 4,000 books.
In 1963 the Guardianthought it worthwhile to send a reporter to interview him. He wrote: "Mr Cass is not the kind of publisher you'd find at cocktail parties; he is neither Eton nor Oxford, neither smooth nor Savile Row suited. In fact he is not even a university man. He is the publisher version of the two-men-and-a-handcart success story."
Just as there had been a surge of interest in black studies in America from the 1960s onwards, so in the 1970s and for the following two decades a similar phenomenon developed in Irish studies. Thriving programmes of Irish studies and Celtic studies, generally orientated towards a burgeoning audience of undergraduates, have become a notable feature of the American academic scene.
When acquired by Frank and others in 1974, Irish Academic Press's offices were small and its staff consisted of Michael Adams and one or two others. After a period during which they concentrated on selling the British parliamentary papers stock, it was decided that they must find fresh publications. Frank oversaw every proposal and insisted on applying the high qualities of peer-review, editing, cover design and production to all the company's books.
These books were of Irish interest, or of wider interest if written by Irish authors. While they included many established academics, politicians and diplomats, he made a particular efforts to encourage younger scholars, many of whose careers were advanced by the publication of their first book by Irish Academic Press.
The latest Irish Academic Press catalogue carries over 300 titles consisting of 20th century history; pre-20th century history; famine studies; military history; social history; women's studies; legal history; local history; the arts; film and media studies and genealogy and reference. A tribute indeed to the energy of Frank Cass and his staff.
Sales of Irish books in the US are also flourishing, and Irish Academic Press sells a higher percentage of its books there than most Irish publishers. For Prof Keith Jeffery, the great original contribution of Irish Academic Press was saving the British parliamentary papers series. He holds the view that since then it has held its position as the most consistent long-standing quality publisher of Irish books based on sound scholarship.
Under the guidance of Frank Cass, Irish Academic Press has become extremely pro-active in seeking new manuscripts that, once published, are heavily promoted. He had a special fondness for the imprint, which he regarded as one of the growth areas within his final publishing interests.
One vital ingredient in this success story was his ability to make and retain the friendship of influential and important Irish academics, authors and editors.
Perhaps even more importantly, he had the knack of assessing accurately which young men and women were likely to progress. He had an ability to see beyond the immediate future and take a long-term view.
Though the publishing trade changed dramatically over five decades, Frank Cass did not. The 22-year-old who stepped out of the Economist Bookshop for the last time was not so different from the man he became, somewhat older, surely wiser, but in all essential characteristics he remained the same. Money was never a motivation; indeed he was always ready to publish a worthy book even if it was unlikely to cover its cost. He cherished the independence he enjoyed for more than 50 years, being one of the very few to survive so long in this difficult trade. His death is a great loss to the Irish and wider publishing scene and to his many admirers and friends, but his company and his vision will continue long into the future.
Frank Cass: Born July 11th, 1930; died August 9th, 2007.