Good Writing. Serious e-Reading.

Now and Then Reader, a new digital publishing house co-founded by industry veteran Ivan R. Dee, today announced the publication of five nonfiction titles now available for download through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple iBookstore, and Google Books. The lineup is headlined by "Holy Cow 2000: The Strange Election of George W. Bush," an eye-opening account of the 2000 presidential election by Kenneth O’Reilly, author of "Nixon’s Piano" and "Racial Matters," a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. The company’s first list also includes: -- Jean-Paul Sartre’s essay on France’s experience under Nazi control, "Paris Under the Occupation," translated from the French with an introduction by Lisa Lieberman -- "Abstraction and Utopia," an exploration of abstract art's early ties to utopian politics by Hilton Kramer, former chief art critic of the New York Times and founder of The New Criterion -- William L. O’Neill’s lively survey of the eccentric politics and culture of the 1960s, "Dawning of the Counter-culture" -- An excerpt from Ulysses S. Grant’s personal memoirs, with an introduction by David Hardin, "The Closing Rounds of the Civil War" Now and Then Reader plans to release a selection of substantial pieces of serious nonfiction for e-readers each month. Concentrating on writings that are historically based but also have relevance for present-day events, the new digital publisher will emphasize original works by writers who are authorities in their fields, excerpts from forthcoming books, and reprints of material that otherwise isn’t readily available for e-readers. Priced from $1.99 to $3.99, Now and Then titles will be available exclusively as digital downloads and will range from 5,000 to 25,000 words in length. Upcoming releases will include "Is a College Education Still Worth the Price?: A Dean’s Sobering Perspective" by Richard B. Schwartz of the University of Missouri; "John F. Kennedy’s Women: The Story of a Sexual Obsession" by JFK’s major biographer Michael O’Brien; "Artificial Epidemics," a revealing look at the treatment of prostate cancer and depression by Stewart Justman; "Women in Slavery," excerpts from Fanny Kemble’s antebelllum Journal, with an introduction by Catherine Clinton; "Expanded Powers," Athan Theoharis’s assessment of U.S. domestic intelligence activities since 9/11 and their impact on civil liberties; and an intriguing discussion of violence in baseball by Peter Morris, the renowned historian of early baseball. Ivan Dee, former president of Ivan R. Dee, Inc., and former chief editor of Quadrangle Books, established Now and Then Reader with co-founder Chandos Erwin to reach a growing audience of e-readers looking for quality nonfiction. “The greatest problem in publishing serious nonfiction over the past few decades has been finding the audience,” Dee says. “We think it’s still there, but it’s nearly impossible to reach through the retail chains, and with the decline of independent booksellers and the virtual disappearance of review space in major print media, it’s a daunting task. We’re very encouraged that we can reach our audience through electronic readers.” “The widespread adoption of the Kindle, Nook, and iPad has opened up a whole new marketplace for niche publishing,” says co-founder and marketing director Chandos Erwin. “Serious readers can now easily access high-quality writing on-demand.” Now and Then Reader’s nonfiction titles and contributors are profiled on the company’s website: http://www.nowandthenreader.com. Previews of each title are available on the site and via the company’s Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/nowandthenreader. The titles will also be available for purchase through the Now and Then Reader iPad application in January 2012.