at new york university. to have that many survivors leave materials behind that you can work from is a gold mine for a historian. the long kind of think that i wish i had found more of an didn't was records of some of the americans who did not fight in the international brigades but fought in a militia unit. there is an american in new york who is standing next to orwell in the trenches when he was shot. his unit had an american dr.. unfortunately no papers from either of these folks are the other handful of americans who were there at the time had survived. journalist tend to keep everything so there was a lot of material from the various

journalist who covered the world. herbert of the new york times kept a carbon copy of every dispatch he sent to the papers headquarters in new york so that people like me and as years later could see how terribly these were censored and condensed by the time they finally appeared in the newspaper. i actually concluded that they did not do a lot of political censorship but matthews was quite long-winded and he was one of those reporters of editors and former editors that you know, certain reporters that get wildly offended every time you cut a sentence out of their story. so i found an abundance of material to work from. as i mentioned i think it is always fun when you can put documents together that cast

several different lights, several different light on the same event. sometime even the same person, saying something differently at different points in time. a little little example of that, for example, in hemingway's novel about the war for whom the bell tolls, incidentally the central episode in that novel, the blowing up of a bridge behind -- hemingway himself took part in a raid that blew up a bridge behind to the mine. i tell that story in the book. and that novel he paints and excoriating picture of stalin's men who who are in charge of the international brigades and when the book appeared in this country the communist press was

outraged because they had expected hemenway's much-anticipated novel novel about the war would be about working-class men from different countries standing shoulder to shoulder and fighting fascism. instead the the heroes is a former college professor who is into spanish literature and is nonpolitical and here's the excoriating portrait of stalin's leading commissary in spain. one american party official and spanish civil war veteran and himself and author of quite a good memoir about the or, how they reviewed the novel in a communist party publication and talked about how dreadful it was that hemingway had destroyed history in this way and said these insulting things about the great antifascist fighter. you compare it with bessie's home diary about when he met

marti and he found him a thug and a demagogue and he said so the diary. so it's wonderful to put things together like that. >> i think we're running out of time. >> i recall one of the books i read, mention was made when the forces family march and barcelona one of the first political leaders they executed happened to be president of fc barcelona, the sacristy, in your research did you find out anything about the role of the soccer club in the resistance? >> i did not. as i mentioned. >> yes you could write a whole another book about this with the different set of characters in the stories would be equally fascinating. >> it is my wife whose dad was in spain, never knew him, i, i wish i had. i have heard about him for 30

years i've lived in the shadows. i cannot measure up. he was also on the london blitz. she. she did mention he was shot, he was wounded in the summer when he met hemingway and said he was there again. and a couple of questions quickly. what would spain have looked like if the republic one, what if an stalin's would've been democratic. if it would've been one what hitler and mussolini not have started a war? >> a question. i think of the spanish republic had won the war, people of spain would have been much better off. there are right wing historians that said if the republic would've won it would've become a soviet satellite. it is true,

the soviet state have great influence in the army and security police. i think to effectively turn a country into a satellite you have to have military occupation. the soviet satellites in eastern europe could remain that you eat way for 40 years because the red army was at hand in moscow did not stop and hesitated to play when somebody got out of line. as seen is it six in east germany, 1953 in czechoslovakia. similarly, the u.s. kept most nations in central america and the caribbean doing pretty much what it wanted throughout the 20th century through ceaseless string of military interventions. without a red army occupied the republic of spain i do not think it would've been a soviet satellite. what kind of of country what it have been? i think democratic, disorganized, chaotic, but not a

military dictatorship. furthermore, and this sort of gets to the second question you asked, if the republic had won the war spain would not have been a de facto ally for hitler in world war ii. spain never formally joined the access powers in world war ii, but franco gave hitler a base for 21 attack submarines on spain's atlantic coast, basis for reconnaissance aircraft, radio listening post encourage 45,000 young spaniards young spaniards to volunteer for hitler's army and his doomed invasion of russia and utmost importance applied hitler with a stream of strategic metals throughout the war. things that were were very important allies in making weapons. if the republican spain had one

hitler would not have had that defect though ally in world war ii. i do not think it would have stopped hitler from launching the second world war because i think spain, for hitler was always something of a sideshow. his real ambition was to show russia who is a boss and control eastern europe and the western parts of the soviet union and reach the volken and caspian oil field. i do not think a loss in spain would have deterred him from that. >> thank you so much [applause]. [inaudible conversation] [inaudible conversation]

>> this is book tv on c-span two. television for serious readers. here's. here's a look at our primetime lineup for tonight. beginning at 8:00 p.m. eastern, fred, the battle for the future of energy and the environment. on or after its program starting at 9:00 p.m. eastern historian pamela haig provides a history of guns in america. then at 10:00 p.m. eastern, actress stacey dash discusses her life and conservatism. at 10:30 p.m. commits an interview with marcia clark, the prosecutor in the o.j. simpson trial. we wrap up book to be we wrap up book to be in prime time with the new york times white house responded with report on the relationship between president obama and former secretary of state, hillary clinton. that all happens tonight on c-span2, book tv. >> michael what you do for a living. >> i am ceo -- which means i

work with a lot of really talented publishers and editors, marketers, salespeople, finance people, anything that is involved in running moderate publishing company that is involved in bringing books to other readers in america and around the world. >> host: what makes up the company? >> it is made up of some publishers that have been around for very long time. its oldest division is called little brown company founded in 1837 a boston. we have another division call grand central publishing which is the publishing commercial mainstream fiction and nonfiction. that is better around 35 or 45 years. it started with warner books. we warner books. we have a children books division, we have a christian division, we have a nonfiction division and we have a division called the hachette audio, and we just acquired another section

which is publishing on fiction for all kinds a readers. >> host: what is the importance of having all this different influence? >> guest: wonderful thing about publishing is that it is done out of creative beings who have a focus on a kind of book usually. the publishing you noticed how time there is a lot of publishing company who is two companies names together, like lillian brown, the harper brothers, publishing is a collective activity. you want to have groups that are focused around individual titles. that one brand puts out all those books would lose the individuality that each of those publishing inputs have. they have different personalities, different books they love, different love, different ways to bring it to the world, and

you want to have that branding, not because of consumers care so much, nobody's looking at it financing it is a basic book necessarily. but the people in between the publisher and the reader, all the tv interviewers, reviewers, bloggers, libraries, they, libraries, they know the brands in the publishing groups and they know the personality and it mean something to those people what a book comes in with that name of the spine. you want to have these different groups because of this focus of energy that really works. publishing is a person to person, just like reading when you read a book and you read it you want to talk about it. publishing is like that made larger. >> host: how long has has shut been around? >> it has been around for ten years. it it is the third largest publisher of the world. in france it goes back to the 1820s. they had a plan to extend an internationally france because they were the ceo and the books

were selling all over the world where they were first in english and then spanish. we expanded with companies in the u.k. and the u.s., spain, and they had the time warner book group ten years ago. >> host: and you're headquartered now? >> guest: all major publishers are you wonder why? we had to think about this because recently we moved offices. i said we could be anywhere, why are all the big publishers in new york? i read histories about it, the reason publishers are in new york historically is because of the erie canal. there used to be publishers in boston, philadelphia, new york, they are about the same size because the cities are about the same size, the market was growing and when that your canal was completed the cost of getting books from

in the market to new york is so much lower that they could offer more money to others, they could promise them a bigger audience, new york became the place that others came if they wanted a full publication. so that's what it used to be in new york. but the economics are not driving up business anymore so what we realized when we have seen the publishes are in new york because the marketing opportunities, because of media. they want to get their books hurt, there's hundreds there's hundreds of thousands a book published a urine to get them noted is the first. you get your books noted through your relationship with radio, tv, online companies, all of the media companies, all the media companies come all the meeting companies are in new york. the personal relationships that we have with those people is the lifeblood of the business. that's why publishers are in new york. >> host: how much of your business comes from international business? >> guest: i would like to see more and it is a growing percentage.

because american entertainment products are getting bigger and bigger around the world and because a digitization e-books can be sold and bought in many countries around the world. international sales are growing there currently around 10% and i expect more the future. >> guest: how did you get into this business? >> guest: i got into publishing because i'm a hopeless reader. i'm one of those kids was always had his nose in a book. i love talking about books and like writing reports, love portrait, poetry, novels come all kinds of nonfiction. i love reading. a part of a big family my theory is that i found privacy and books. as one of seven kids in the privacy is like i could disappear into a book and how my own world. i went to college thinking i would become a lawyer and ended up majoring in english

instead because i wanted to read and talk about books. when i thought about what i would do for a living after i finish, i heard of this and call publishing. i looked round about an internship at a small publishing company in boston which i walked in the door and literally never look back. the the first minute of being inside a set of rooms where people were reading manuscripts, thinking about what oaks they should acquire a business relationship with the other, selling the books, packaging, designing, everything that goes into it. the pleasure of thinking about how to take a book and what's inside a book and incarnated into a simple form now in digital form and communicate the idea of the book out to the world, i just find completely compelling. totally what i want to be doing all of the time of publishing is full of people like that. people who really want to think about what's inside a book and how they can get that out to the

world. >> host: what was your first job? >> my first job was that when i just came in and do whatever you tell them to do. it was a small place and gave me the opportunity to do everything. i was was a sales representative in the midwest for a few weeks, as working with a designer cutting and pasting type, is working is working with the finance guy and doing invoices, but the best part was when i was brought into the office i was brought into a library in this library there is a shelf and on the shelf was a stack of manuscripts and boxes and the way the segment. and i got to take him as many boxes i wanted and open up and read him as he was inside and come back and say what you think. should we think about publishing this book, do you think it's something people would pay money to request mark that's a question would people pay money to read this question i got to see everything in see the thrill of the teamwork and it was a

great way to begin. you get to see all of the pieces and that foundation has served me really well. >> host: how did your career advance after that? >> guest: i came to new york where most of the publishers were. all the major publishers were new york and i came to new york. [inaudible] and i was an editor there got to work at some books my boss brought inches i got to begin doing work of an assistant which includes always reading and reading. while there i became an editor and i had the pleasure of working on a hemingway book. it was a great opportunity like being in that house i was able to edit that book about heaven ways memoir called the days of summer and that was just a great

place to begin to acquire books. megabyte it also means you're be entrusted with the company's money. you become you become an investor. your job is to read things in say i think we should put your money into investing in this book because i believe we could make money on it for these reasons. that is where i first was an investor that was a great opportunity and responsibility. >> host: what was a smart decision you made after acquiring editor and was a not so smart decision you make? >> guest: a smart decision is acquiring editor, there have been i'm happy to say i made a lot of on. i'd say working with james patterson, i became his editor

at one point and i guess i cannot take credit there because it's r&b and published by little brown when i became its editor. so working with james patterson have but a great lesson that i've had. i would say persuaded my boss to invest in the book intimate -- it was a great investment. >> host: you had to persuade. >> guest: it was a small novel about a hundred 50 pages and it's hard to say how big the story was going to be and the reason i like the book is the previous book so literally here than 200 copies. my boss looks at it track record like that said well are you sure? but i was able to get support of other readers in house was very excited about what he was writing and to get little brown to support the acquisition of

infinite just in just the way the book has affected people's lives and how much alive it is our culture. >> host: as an acquiring editor somebody we think is different than being the editor marks of the transcript? spee2 the difference between an acquiring editor and align editors not large. most all acquiring editor's acquiring editor's are also edited the book they acquire. some acquiring editor's do turn some of them over to an editor and partner with them, but i do not know any editors who just acquired and give it to someone else, usually it's a path to become an acquiring editor is become align editor. that path is incredibly important to the organization because what the writer is doing is trusting your advice and

trusting to listen to your voice that i have to take it. the editor someone the author trusts and make suggestions. sometimes the other takes it and sometimes that is a very small set of changes, sometimes it is like you misspelled the word or very small things are sometimes as the projector of a book and lines that are not making sense and the way nonfiction book opens and the way the stories laid out sometimes it's really big and a big intimate close partnership. but that incident where the editor does what the writer is kind of the glue of the relationship. >> host: how does that work served you as ceo today? >> guest: with having been an editor i believe it has served me very well as ceo because i have directly with writers and publishing companies.

so the editor's job is not just to edit. the the editor is a business manager as well. your like investments and overseen those investments in the way though you have brought it into the world. work with your packagers and designers. the message, the timing, and someone who is doing all those things well, all that is a foundation of becoming the ceo and a unit of commerce is a certain book. so as an as an editor i have done that. and working intimately with authors and their literary agents as an author acquiring and getting an understanding of the financial aspect of the relationship in their life and how it feels to them. so how we seek you to understand how others feel about the relationship and how important the author is to our enterprise is a great strength. also i continue to edit a couple books a year. i love that intimate work with

an author. i love writers, i love their books that i would not give up that pleasure, i would not give that up. >> host: so if you're still doing that, who are some of the others used to work with? >> guest: i've only been doing, i've been sealed for years so in that. i have been doing editing about two or three books a year. just just last year worked with stacy shift on a book called the witches of the salem witch trial. a biographer name peter brown on his biography of sam phillips, wic with peter on his autobiography of alice presley. for me this is a pleasure, i'm not going to give someone else a pleasure working with these brilliant writers. i love working with james patterson.

>> host: james patterson is been quite an industry in many ways, quite a force in the publishing world in other ways to have you been a part of that? spee2 i've been worked with james patterson for going on 20 years. i started working with him as an editor when he was publishing one book per year. as a matter fact i became his editor at the time he came up with the idea of he would finish one and at that point the science of publishing was one book per year, say month, series packaging, bestsellers and it did work. he came up with this idea and i have to say the executives at the time who oversaw the company said it was crazy talk. this works why would we do that, it's too soon. the be wrong, this is what's working why would we mess with that. jim said, michael when you

finish a novel and really love it different down and say great, i really want to wait a year for another one. and i had to say no. and the edge they will do anything which you try that. so we're able to persuade and the executives of the company that we should buy it and the second book sold more than the first book did. so he puts the reader first not the business side and what the reader wants and builds it from the perspective of that. so working with him as a writer and seen how well it works and the dispense and emotion, also seen his understanding of what readers respond to and investing in the business. he has a really good i've how retail works, he knows a lot about marketing. but he doesn't approach it from a marking point of view, he you purchase it from a readers point of view. he slated this idea of doing more the one book a year which he is now published more than

five, sometimes six hardcovers per year. he works with co-authors, there co-authors, there his ideas, his outlines and he works with them so they can bring his ideas to life. it is way of getting eight -- he has a new idea that were launching next june which again comes out for the reader. as a reader himself in he just that a lot of readers they know they like books but they're just too long. so he came up with that idea of packing all the thrills of one of his thrillers into a short novel that is only 140 pages that you can finish in one night. but get all the thrills, twice the thrills and have the time aware publishing them in a series called book shots. there are only $4.99 cents. a new story, to a story, to a month thrillers in one romance per month.

so in stores that don't necessarily have them so to get the pleasure of reading back in our lives again. so be revolutionary be back. >> host: so far we haven't found the finance side of the ceo guy, >> guest: it comes in as an editor, you have to understand that this is a business and if your recommended books to make money you have to understand why they didn't make money, and how you can make money. so from the first minute i walked walked through the door as i was looking at every piece of financial peace that i could get. you want to do well by our writers any have to do that by understanding your business. and you have to do well by the people who employee by doing well by the business. if not profitable you can be

applied as an editor. so you have to manage your portfolio, manage your projects and then i was promoted and became editor-in-chief where you're responsible for managing a group of people. as a publisher responsible for the publishing division. it means that you have to be looking at every detail. advances, on earned advances, where you're spending money marketing, everything that goes into making this successful publication. . .

he understands the full range of what goes into publish thing publishing successfully. from his publishing in france and england and spain, what are the universal lessons that apply everywhere and he said there are no universal lessons. publishing is local. they have their own way of marketing and a company can't come in to do it this way. a book that is successin