Publisher Jamie Byng on Myth and the Art of Publishing

Published: June 17, 2006, 2:12 a.m.

Canongate publisher Jamie Byng appreciates and understands that myth and The Bible lie at the core of creative imagination and the Western Canon. He marries this knowledge with a skill for presentation and promotion that few other publishers can match. I met with him at BookExpo in Washington D.C. We talk here, among other things, about how he does it, about ambiguity, about the responsibility we parents have to make the lives of our children interesting if not easy, and about living without fear.