Conversations with Peter Mayer: The Origins of Overlook

As dedicated readers of the Winged Elephant already know, in 2011 Overlook celebrated its 40^th birthday as an independent publisher. Founded in 1971 by Peter Mayer, who was then serving as the head of mass market paperbacks at Avon Books, Overlook was never meant to be a publishing company, but has nonetheless flourished to become the publisher of more than 1,500 titles as well as the home to Ardis Publishers and Duckworth.

With four decades of experience under our belts, we’ve acquired some interesting stories along the way. Beginning today, and continuing as a regular supplement to the blog, we’ll be hosting videos from our publisher Peter Mayer, bringing to life the history of Overlook through a series of personal stories highlighting the books and authors that have kept us in business over the past 40 years.

Aufbau (Reconstruction), an anthology of articles originally published in the German language newspaper of the same name, was the first book released by Overlook. Check out the video below for the full story of how Aufbau was conceived, as well as Overlook’s humble origins as a publisher of re-printed hardcovers.