J.P. Tarcher

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Jeremy P. Tarcher founded Tarcher publishing house in Los Angeles in the early 1970s. It was known early on as J.P. Tarcher, and is today part of the Tarcher Perigee imprint of Penguin Random House, based in New York. Mr. Tarcher remained with the company until 1996." [1]

From 2013: "Today, thanks to the passion of publishers like Tarcher, yoga is practiced in Midwestern church basements, Dr. Oz touts homeopathic remedies, and feng shui is part of the decorating vocabulary on HGTV. Although he is now retired from publishing, Tarcher’s legacy continues at Penguin’s Tarcher imprint, which, says editor-in-chief Mitch Horowitz, “still publishes New Age books that capture a wide audience.”" [1]

According to the LA Times: "In the early 1960s Jeremy Tarcher packaged book deals for celebrities, which resulted in such comical titles as "Phyllis Diller's Housekeeping Hints" and Johnny Carson's "Happiness Is a Dry Martini." He might have continued in that vein if he hadn't made a stop at the Esalen Institute, the Northern California hub of New Age thinking about human potential, where figures like Carlos Castaneda and Rollo May were challenging conventional ideas about the workings of the mind and body. Undaunted by New York publishers who thought such ideas had marginal appeal, Tarcher went on to mine California's counterculture for bestsellers, bringing out such consciousness-expanding works as "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" by Betty Edwards and "The Aquarian Conspiracy" by Marilyn Ferguson." [2]

Background of Founder

"Jeremy Phillip Tarcher was born on Jan. 2, 1932, in Manhattan and reared there on Central Park West. His father, Jack, ran his own advertising agency and was later a vice president of the Madison Avenue powerhouse Doyle Dane Bernbach.

"His mother, the former Mary Brager, was a criminal lawyer who became an executive of the Legal Aid Society. His sister Judith grew up to become the best-selling novelist Judith Krantz. (Her novels are issued by the Crown Publishing Group.)

"After graduating from the Horace Mann School in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, Mr. Tarcher earned a bachelor’s degree from St. John’s College in Annapolis, Md.; during the Korean War he was stationed with the Army in Paris. He later studied Eastern philosophy in India before settling in Los Angeles.

"Mr. Tarcher married the television puppeteer and children’s author Shari Lewis in 1958 and went on to publish some of her books, including “The Kids-Only Club Book” (1976). He and Ms. Lewis also collaborated on the script for “The Lights of Zetar,” an episode of “Star Trek,” first broadcast in 1969, in which the crew of the Enterprise is overtaken by a malign alien storm...

"Tarcher’s other well-known books include “The Aquarian Conspiracy” (1980), a guide to New Age consciousness raising by Marilyn Ferguson; “Bikram’s Beginning Yoga Class” (1978), by Bikram Choudhury, with Bonnie Jones Reynolds; “Quitting the Nairobi Trio” (2000), a memoir of mental illness by Jim Knipfel; and “The United States of Wal-Mart” (2005), an exploration of the company by John Dicker." [2]

"He served on the board of Esalen for years..." [3]

"Michael Murphy, the co-founder of Esalen Institute, published several books for J.P. Tarcher, and was a pivotal figure in the human potential movement. Jeremy’s long association with Murphy led to his connection with Esalen and its rich wealth of creative voices associated with the Institute. George Leonard was another Tarcher author who was once President of Esalen and a notable pioneer in the same field." [4]

Resources and articles

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References

  1. New York Times Jeremy P. Tarcher, Publisher of Nonfiction Best Sellers, Dies at 83, organizational web page, accessed March 27, 2018.
  2. New York Times Jeremy P. Tarcher, Publisher of Nonfiction Best Sellers, Dies at 83, organizational web page, accessed March 27, 2018.