Frederick A. Praeger (publisher)

Frederick Amos Praeger was born in Vienna, Austria, on 16 September 1915. His parents were Maximilien "Max" Mayer Präger, an Austrian publisher and newspaper editor, and Mariem Präger (née Foerster). He was an only child. From 1933 to 1938, he undertook studies in law and political science at the University of Vienna, and in 1934 he studied at the University of Paris. From 1935 to 1938, while pursuing his studies, he also worked in his father's publishing house, R. Loewit Verlag in Vienna. In 1938, following the rise of Nazism in Austria and with the Praeger family, as Jews, finding itself under increasing threats, he was briefly imprisoned and then migrated to the United States. His parents, who remained behind, were murdered in the Holocaust. ==United States==

Upon his arrival Praeger worked in numerous jobs ("lens grinder, soda jerk, gas station attendant") before becoming an American citizen in 1941 and serving in the U.S. Army in Europe during the Second World War and in the U.S. military government in Germany and in "various intelligence and editorial capacities" after the war's end. ==Frederick A. Praeger, Inc.==

Returning to the United States, he founded a book-export business. In 1950, using borrowed money, he set up a Frederick A. Praeger Publishing, which would later be named Frederick A. Praeger, Inc. (later renamed Praeger Publishers) and a subsidiary firm, Inter Books, Inc. the Praeger University Series, the Praeger World of Art Paperbacks/Series, the Praeger Publications in Russian History & World Communism, the Praeger Special Studies Series, and the Praeger Film Library. In 1966 Praeger sold his firm to William B. Benton, an American senator and publisher and the chairman of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. which had shortened the name to Praeger Publishing before selling it to Greenwood Press, Inc. in 1986. Praeger Publishing become a standalone imprint of ABC-Clio, and remained such when, in December 2021, Bloomsbury Publishing bought ABC-Clio. ==Editor==

During the 1960s and 1970s he also served in editorial and managerial roles with various British and American publishing firms, including Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, the Phaidon Press, London, Phaidon Publishers, New York, and the Pall Mall Press, London. In the years 1968-1974 Praeger resided in Austria and worked with two Munich publishing firms: the Schuler Verlag and the Kunst Verlag Praeger. ==Westview Press==

Having moved back to America, he founded the Westview Press in Boulder, Colorado in 1975, which specialised in "scholarly scientific and technical books" printed in inexpensive typewritten formats and issued without dust wrappers. This firm was sold to SCS Communications in 1989 and now owned by Taylor & Francis. ==Legacy==

Praeger's publishing output benefited from the rising college library budgets in the United States from the mid-20th century and in response he published numerous academic titles and book series in the fields of "international relations, Russian and German history, military science and art" ==Personal life==

Praeger married three times; his third wife was Kellie Masterson. Praeger had four children, daughters Claudia, Andrea, Manya and Alexandra. He died in Boulder, Colorado on 28 May 1994. ==Awards==

1957: Carey-Thomas Award (Publishers Weekly/R. R. Bowker Company) for outstanding creative publishing in obtaining and offering the Djilas book ==Bibliography==

The following is a list of some of the principal series; it is not comprehensive. ==Westview Press book series==

Below is a list of some of the main series; it is not comprehensive. == References ==