Through Bob Ginsberg's education, professional activity, research and editing, he has succeeded in reaching out beyond the parochial limits of national boundaries. Ginsberg's writings have been published in nearly 20 countries, and he believes there's great value in such international activity.

"All scholarly fields are international, says Ginsberg. "Scholarship is not limited by borders. Even a quintessentially American subject as the Declaration of Independence is the object of study in many places in the world. A scholar in one country must know the work of scholars in other countries.

"English is an international language, not simply a national language. It is the international language of scholarship for academic writers in many countries, including Japan, Finland, South Africa and Chile."

Beginning With Textbooks

A Casebook on The Declaration of Independence was Ginsberg's first textbook published in 1967 by an old New York Publishing House, Thomas Y. Crowell. It emerged from his scholarly work on that topic of which he accumulated a large amount of material.

"I had to turn my scholarly interests in the Declaration material to a student-oriented casebook (a book of readings), so I introduced questions for study, a chronology, an extensive bibliography and background texts," Ginsberg says. "For the beginning student, I included short and easy pieces. But for the more advanced student, I offered some extensive technical essays. I slipped in one of my essays, the privilege of a textbook editor, as a way of conjoining my scholarly work and pedagogical activity."

The casebook was marketed for English courses, but it also served well in American history and American studies.

Ginsberg himself used the casebook regularly in his philosophy courses at The Pennsylvania State University, where he taught for 35 years. Now Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Comparative Literature (he retired in 2002) his works continue to be read worldwide.

Ginsberg's second published textbook, Welcome to Philosophy! A Handbook for Students, is a result of his work in the classroom.

Each semester he found that his syllabus for philosophy courses was getting bigger. He was trying to give his beginning students as much orientation to the field as possible.

"This developed into a separate, 50-page guidebook, Introduction to the Study of Philosophy, that I had printed for them," Ginsberg says. "The thought occurred to me, 'If I can make good use of this handbook for my students, then other philosophy teachers might make good use of it, if it were published as a book.' "

He began to circulate copies to publishers until he found the right one - Freeman, Cooper & Company, a small house of quality in San Francisco. "William H. Freeman, the publisher, was most kind to me as a young author," Ginsberg says. "And his wife, Margaret Freeman, copyedited my work, which appeared in 1977."

In the small volume, Ginsberg gives the beginner explanations and encouragement on the basics of philosophical activity - reading, writing, discussing and thinking. He included sample exams, a glossary, passages for study and classroom jokes.

Editing Series of Textbooks

Through hard work and dedication, Ginsberg went from textbook author to editor of a series of textbooks.

"As a college teacher, I felt obligated to be thoroughly familiar with all the textbooks available in my field," he says. "After all, choosing the best textbook for a course is the teacher's inescapable duty. Fortunately, in the old days, textbooks would come unsolicited from many publishers. Other publishers would generously provide complimentary examination copies upon request."

By examining the textbooks, Ginsberg could detect their weaknesses. He imagined how to combine their best features. He drafted outlines for better textbooks, for volumes to deal with areas of philosophy for which no textbook existed and for entire series of books.

"These plans I circulated, unsuccessfully, among many publishers," Ginsberg says. "My consolation was the thought that one day I would be discovered as a textbook editor."

And then one day, the telephone rang, and he was discovered. The call was from Arthur C. Bartlett, vice president of Jones and Bartlett Publishers, a dynamic company in Boston. He was a friend of Freeman's, who had recently retired and closed his company.

"Freeman graciously turned over to Bartlett the rights to a handful of philosophy textbooks, including mine," Ginsberg says. "Bartlett, who had developed the line of books in life sciences for Jones and Bartlett, asked what I thought of the future of this line of philosophy books. I drafted a grand plan for developing a program for publishing in philosophy."

In turn, Bartlett created a Philosophy Division for Jones and Bartlett and brought Ginsberg on board as his academic General Editor. "Bartlett was my genial and energetic mentor in textbook publishing," Ginsberg says. "He showed me that promising textbooks are in the minds of philosophy teachers. By encouraging and advising them, we could get sound results. What an exciting time working with authors as they developed their books for us."

They published principally in ethics, several titles in logic, and books in religion, aesthetics and health. Their first author was the Nobel Prize winner, Linus Pauling. In the 1990s, they published 27 volumes and a 26-part video series. The Jones and Bartlett philosophy list was transferred to Wadsworth Publishing, now Thomson Learning.

Authoring, editing scholarly works

Not only has Ginsberg been successful in textbook publishing, but he also has been an author and series editor of scholarly books.

His career as a scholarly author goes back to writing a master's thesis at the University of Chicago and a Doctoral Dissertation at the University of Pennsylvania.

"In my philosophy dissertation, I tried to eliminate war from the world," Ginsberg says. "I did not succeed. So I decided to call upon the outstanding philosophers throughout the world to join in this goal. The result was The Critique of War: Contemporary Philosophical Explorations (1969)."

Ginsberg did some translation and wrote the introduction. The publisher, Henry Regnery Company of Chicago, realized the topic could have wide readership and made it available for the general public.

Another volume of scholarly studies that he edited emerged from panel sessions that he organized at meetings of the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies. He found Susquehanna University Press, one of the Associated University Presses, to publish the impressive papers that were circulated and discussed at meetings.

The volume, The Philosopher as Writer: The Eighteenth Center, appeared in 1987. Ginsberg inserted one of his studies into it.

Ginsberg's big scholarly book, The Aesthetics of Ruins, was published in 2004 by Rodopi of Amsterdam and New York after 37 years of work on the subject. "I wrote the book to get a lot of my system and to better people's lives," he says.

Next, Ginsberg moved from publishing his own scholarly books and collaborative volumes to publishing books written by other scholars.

As a charter member of the new North American Society for Social Philosophy, he called for the creation of a book series to serve its members. Following the society's approval, he and John A. Loughney founded the Social Philosophy Research Institute Book Series (SPRIBS), published by University Press of America. In the 1980s and 1990s, they published eight volumes.

In another major accomplishment, the New Studies in Aesthetics has become the world's largest English-language scholarly book series in aesthetics, published by Peter Lang Publishing.

"Largely due to the mentorship of Lang's editor, Heidi Burns, we have published 33 volumes by authors in Austria, Greece, England, Italy, Finland, Singapore, Brazil, Israel and the USA," Ginsberg says.

The biggest of his editorial activities came from his enjoyment of writing book reviews. "Based upon that experience, I became the Book Review Editor of the small Journal of Social Philosophy," Ginsberg says. "The next step was to be named Executive Editor of The Journal of Value Inquiry (1990), published in Dordrecht, The Netherlands, by Kluwer Academic Publishers."

And from that experience emerged The Value Inquiry Book Series (VIBS), published by the international publisher, Rodopi. He was joined by world-class editors, including Richard T. Hull and Michael H. Mitias. Eric van Broekhuizen, in Rodopi's Amsterdam home office, became his mentor in scholarly publishing.

Together, in the 10 years of Ginsberg's editorship, they published 123 volumes by authors in 19 countries. Under Ginsberg's successor, Peter A. Redpath, volume 184 appeared this fall.

The Writing Life

Ginsberg's great variety of work has been organized on the four corners of his desk. "On one corner, I piled the materials for The Journal of Value Inquiry. On the second corner: the Value Inquiry Book Series. The third: Jones and Bartlett Philosophy Series. The fourth: New Studies in Aesthetics. The middle of the desk had room for my own scholarly work."

When do you find to edit and to write?

"Every faculty member must face limitations posed by institutions and demands pressed by other parties," Ginsberg says. "The answer to finding the time changes with time and professional growth. Anyone dedicated to the academic life has the responsibility and some freedom for developing a career amid these challenges and limitations. I have found that the hours between midnight and four in the morning are usually free of obligations."

Ginsberg also finds time to enjoy his gardening, which he considers a form of editing - "the cultivation, pruning and enhancement of what has been planted."

Ginsberg currently resides in Takoma Park, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, where he directs The International Center for the Arts, Humanities and Value Inquiry. He's married to Dr. Ellen S. Ginsberg, a retired faculty member of The Catholic University of America in Washington.

Any other advice for struggling writers and editors in their academic life? "Do not give up," Ginsberg says.

— reported by Kim Seidel, 2007

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