Abstract

In this essay Kenner meditates on the past, present, and future of university publishers and scholarly publishing. He reflects in particular on the financial pressures resulting from changes in tax laws that have contributed to the decline of the scholarly monograph, and he considers as well the pressures generated by the development of online publication. He further tells cautionary tales, from his own experience, that underscore how important it is that the public stewards of scholarship and literature at academic presses not make hasty decisions about what titles to publish and what to prune from their backlists.