A Turning Point in the Long History of Hestia Publishers & Booksellers: The Dictatorship Years and the Aftermath

Abstract

Hestia Publishers & Booksellers is the oldest Greek publishing house in operation since 1885, without interruption. This paper covers the evolution of the enterprise focusing on the company’s publishing strategy at the turning point of the 1970s when Marina Karaitidi succeeded her father at the head of the company. She had then to face the rapid change of the Greek editorial landscape and an acute competition from a multitude of small yet dynamic and avant-garde new publishing houses with a firm leftist antidictatorship stance in a critical moment for Modern Greek political life. It examines Hestia’s cultural impact and critical choices that shaped its later position in Modern Greek letters that till recently labelled it as a centre-right positioned publisher that stayed aloof from modern trends and political commitments. It shall be demonstrated how Hestia succeeded in reversing this image and is now recognised as a distinguished publishing house bearing a high cultural prestige