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Hart to publish posthumous Atiyah

23.01.08 Tom Tivnan

Oxford-based legal specialist Hart Publishing is launching a new trade imprint with a posthumous title on a Russian attempt to colonise America. Parker Press will publish The Great Land: How Western America Nearly Became a Russian Possession (£19.95, h/b) by Jeremy Atiyah on 14th March. Atiyah, a travel writer and the first Independent on Sunday travel editor, had nearly completed the book when he died on a walking trip in Italy in 2006 at the age of 42. The book has been finished by his father Patrick, a retired professor of law at Oxford University.

The Great Land tells the story of Russians from Siberia attempting to colonise Alaska and the west coast of America during the late 1700s and early 1800s. The colonisers settled as far south as present day San Francisco.

Hart was founded in 1996 by husband and wife team Richard Hart and Jane Parker, who both worked at Oxford University Press. It publishes around 65 books a year and has a 650-strong backlist. Hart said: "Launching a trade imprint had been in the back of our minds for two or three years. Jeremy's book is a very interesting take on a little-known subject and we thought we had to do it."

The company initially aims to publish three or four commercial non-fiction titles a year under the Parker imprint, and is currently in talks for another book this autumn. Orders can be placed direct through Hart with details on its website, www.hartpub.co.uk.

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