Editorial

Dear friends of Schirmer/Mosel Publishers,

Two major anniversaries in 2026 are generating a lot of attention. There is the 100th birthday of Marilyn Monroe on June 1, 2026. The media world is gearing up for this event on an enormous scale. As Marilyn Monroe specialists, we are well prepared. In 1982, I compiled and published Marilyn and the Camera featuring the most beautiful Marilyn pictures by prominent photographers. Entitled Golden Marilyn, as befits her 100th birthday, we are offering the bi lingual German/English edition of Marilyn and the Camera with a golden dust jacket at a special price of 25 Euros. And there’s the bilingual German/English edition of our small Marilyn classic with 48 selected photos and Truman Capote’s famous essay “A Beautiful Child”. German editions of Sam Shaw’s major monograph Dear Marilyn and Colin Clark’s memories as Marilyn’s production assistant for The Prince and the Showgirl complete our Marilyn Monroe edition in print.

And there is the bicentennial of the invention of photography, to be celebrated from fall 2026 to 2027. We are also well prepared for this. From the very beginning, our publishing program of 50 years has centered on photography. In recent years, the visual arts have become another focus. These focal points feature three new publications that are already out in the world. Our publication accompanying the Tübingen exhibition Joseph Beuys. Inhabited Myths presents the artist’s wonderful early drawings. The bilingual Italian/English publication Jeff Wall. Living, Working, Surviving accompanying a major Jeff Wall exhibition at the Fondazione MAST in Bologna deals with works addressing the hardships of working men and women. The third book in this section is the catalog of selected works from my art collection currently on display at the Kallmann Museum in Ismaning near Munich.

Four more art-related volumes are part of our spring program. The European premiere publication of Frida Kahlo’s drawings, edited by Helga Prignitz, is an art-historical sensation.

Martin Assig’s series of ink drawings in black is a highlight of graphic art in Germany. Combin ing black humor with graphic astringence and creative diversity, they tie in with Franz Kafka’s drawings, not only by their literary dimension. On the 50th anniversary of the 1976 London exhibition The Human Clay dedicated to contemporary British artists adhering to the figurative representation of the human body, we continue our R.B. Kitaj edition by publishing a new edition of the catalog.

Our series “One Image and Its Story“ continues with the photograph Leap into the Void, with which French painter YvesKlein immortalized himself in the history of photography and performing arts.

Jazz, the most prominent artist’s book of the 20th century featuring the eponymous cycle of paper cutouts by Henri Matisse, will be republished in a trilingual French/English/German edition just in time for a major Henri Matisse exhibition at the Grand Palais in Paris in March.

As previously announced, Claus Goedicke’s photo study on plastic packaging is also scheduled for a spring release.

And Helmut Newton. Portraits, a longseller and classic that sold out last year is being reprinted.

Our topographical series features Braunschweig in Early Photographs and the works of August Kotzsch, photo chronicler of the 19th-century Kingdom of Saxony.

Munich is presented in two revised editions: a collection of 19th-century black-and-white photographs and Rainer Viertlböck’s color photographs showing the city at the turn of the 20th/21st century.

I wish you every success with our lavish bouquet of new publications and our backlist of 381 titles now organized by subject.