Earth Times Books Launched to Promote New Voices on the Environment and Social Issues

Posted on July 1, 1999

The Earth Times Foundation, publisher of The Earth Times, has launched a new, not-for-profit book publishing company, Earth Times Books. Earth Times Books will especially promote the works of new voices on the human environment and social issues.

The first title of Earth Times Books is "All of Us: Births and a Better Life- Population, Development and Environment in a Globalized World." The book's formal publication date is September 15, but it is already available through Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, and through the Earth Times website. Contributors to the 500-page anthology include well-known names such as President Bill Clinton; A. M. Rosenthal, columnist for The New York Times; Flora Lewis, Tom Wicker, Paul Hofmann, and John Corry, all formerly of The Times; Klaus Schwab, president and founder of the World Economic Forum; Audrey Ronning Topping, the Asia expert and photojournalist; Sir Shridath S. Ramphal, former Secretary General of the Commonwealth; Soon-Young Yoon, the anthropologist; and Seymour Topping, Administrator of the Pulitzer Prizes.

In addition to such international bylines, All of Us contains articles by fresh voices from the grassroots, especially in developing countries. The book is edited by Jack Freeman, formerly of NBC News, and Pranay Gupte, formerly of The New York Times and now a columnist for Newsweek International, editor and publisher of The Earth Times, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Design and illustrations are by Louis Silverstein, formerly assistant managing editor of The New York Times.

All of Us consists of selections from the pages of The Earth Times, an independent, nonpartisan print and Web newspaper that was started eight years ago. The newspaper focuses on the environment, sustainable economic development, gender issues, children's rights, health and education, science and technology, media, business, and population. Earth Times Books expects to publish at least six to ten titles each year. The idea is to provide an opportunity for writers who don't ordinarily get exposure in Western mainstream publishing. Forthcoming titles will include both nonfiction and fiction, and distribution is being arranged through the Earth Times’s website and through a system involving cooperation by scores of small bookstores in the United States and in the developing world.