Marix Evans, Martin 1939–

(Martin F. Marix Evans)

PERSONAL:

Born December 25, 1939, in Southport, Lancashire, England; son of Jean-Paul (a lawyer; in business) and Margaret Marix Evans; married Gillian Haselwood, April 2, 1966; children: Louise Mary, Polly Harriet. Ethnicity: "Caucasian." Education: Cambridge University, B.A., 1963, M.A., 1985; Wesleyan University, foreign scholar, 1959-60. Hobbies and other interests: Painting, classic cars (especially Aston Martins).

ADDRESSES:

Office—1 Church St., Blakesley, Towcester, Northamptonshire NN12 8RA, England.

CAREER:

Longman Group, Harlow, Essex, England, publisher, marketer, and tertiary editor, 1963-74; Pitman Publishing, London, England, director of university and college publications, director of trade books, and marketing director, 1974-81; Frederick Warne, London, editorial director, 1981-82; Thames Head, Avening, Gloucester, England, editorial director, 1982-87; BLA Publishing, East Grinstead, England, editorial director, 1987-89; Book Packaging and Marketing, Silverstone, England, owner, 1989-2007; Naseby Battlefield Project, Blakesley, England, trustee and chair, 2007—. Independent Publishers' Guild, chair, 1988-90; Battlefields Trust, trustee, 2003—.

MEMBER:

Society of Authors, Victorian Military Society, Western Front Association.

WRITINGS:

The Twelve Days of Christmas, Peter Pauper Press (White Plains, NY), 1993.

The Canals of England, Weidenfeld & Nicolson (London, England), 1994.

(Editor) Contemporary Photographers, 3rd edition, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 1995.

Encyclopedia of the Boer War, American Bibliographic Center—Clio Press (Santa Barbara, CA), 2000.

American Voices of World War I, Fitzroy Dearborn (Chicago, IL), 2001.

Over the Top: Great Battles of the First World War, Arcturus (London, England), 2002.

1918: The Year of Victories, Arcturus (London, England), 2002.

A Terrible Beauty: An Illustrated History of Irish Battles, photographs by David Lyons, Gill & Macmillan (Dublin, Ireland), 2003.

Campaign Chronicles: Passchendaele, the Hollow Victory, Pen and Sword (Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England), 2005.

(Editor, with Richard Holmes) Battlefield: Decisive Conflicts in History, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2006.

Contributor to books, including London, England & Wales, Nelles Verlag (Munich, Germany), 1995; Fields of Battle: Terrain in Military History, Kluwer Academic, 2002; Remarkable Maps, Conway Maritime Press (London, England), 2005; and Passchendaele: The Battle Ninety Years On, Wharncliffe Publishing (Barnsley, England), 2007. Also contributor to Internet Web sites.

AUTHOR AND PHOTOGRAPHER

Paris: Guide along the Seine, Pitkin Pictorials (Andover, England), 1991.

Ypres in War and Peace, Pitkin Pictorials (Andover, England), 1992.

D-Day and the Battle of Normandy, Pitkin Pictorials (Andover, England), 1994.

The Second World War, Pitkin Pictorials (Andover, England), 1995.

Paris in Your Pocket, Michelin (Clermont-Ferrand, France), 1996.

The Battles of the Somme, Motorbooks International (Osceola, WI), 1996.

Passchendaele and the Battles of Ypres, Osprey Publishing (London, England), 1997.

The Military Heritage of Britain and Ireland, Andre Deutsch (London, England), 1998.

Retreat Hell! We Just Got Here: The American Expeditionary Force, 1917-18, Stackpole Books (Mechanicsburg, PA), 1998.

The Battle for Arnhem, Pitkin Guides (Andover, England), 1998.

The Boer War: South Africa, 1899-1902, Osprey Publishing (Oxford, England), 1999.

The Fall of France: Act with Daring! The German Conquest, 1940, Osprey Publishing (Oxford, England), 2000.

(With Peter Burton and Mike Westaway) Battleground Europe Series: Naseby, Pen and Sword (Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England), 2002.

The Vital Guide to Major Battles of World War II, Airlife (Shrewsbury, England), 2002.

Forgotten Battlefronts of the First World War, Sutton (Stroud, England), 2003.

Operation Sealion: The German Invasion of England, 1940, Longman/Pearson Education (Harlow, England), 2004.

The Vital Guide to Major Battles of World War I, Airlife (Shrewsbury, England), 2004.

The Defeat of Boudicca's Rebellion, Gemini Press (Towcester, Northamptonshire, England), 2004.

Naseby 1645, Osprey Publishing (Oxford, England), 2007.

Marix Evans's works have been translated into German, French, Italian, Spanish, Flemish, Polish, Russian, Japanese, and Dutch.

SIDELIGHTS:

Martin Marix Evans once told CA: "I worked for many years as a publisher and then as a book packager, what is known in the United States as a book producer, creating books for publishers to market. During this time the ethos of the business changed in the world of publishing. From an admiration of service to the users of our books and encouragement to create and market them to the best of our ability, the emphasis swung to putting shareholders' short-term objectives and the lining of our own pockets before all else. The joy went out of it.

"The primary motivation for writing—that is, the original impetus—was an accident. To meet the delivery date I had to write Paris: Guide along the Seine myself, and take some of the photos. That led to the Ypres book and the First World War while D-Day led to the Second. I continued, and still continue, making books to client specifications as the third edition of Contemporary Photographers attests, but increasingly I was drawn to investigate and interpret wartime experience to the newcomer.

"The vast majority of military history publishing is literary. The words alone, perhaps with a few skimpy diagrams pretending to be maps and a wad of photos bundled in just as they were a century ago, are considered sufficient. But relate this to action on the ground, go and walk the battlefield, get wet, muddy and tired, and the failure of the literary is clear. The visual evidence is vital. What maps did they have then? What can you see from there? So if the book's user cannot go personally, the book must attempt to do the job.

"The research thus becomes a set of tasks. Reading primary and secondary sources and studying analysis by scholars; researching maps and the information sources as well as the technical resources available to the combatants; visiting the ground and photographing the terrain—the monuments to those who fought. To this is added researching the visual evidence in drawings and photos. Then all these elements have to be combined in text and illustration—used as needful, neither having precedence, to give the book user (not necessarily reader, looker also) the information and, with luck, the understanding they seek. This is a process few literary editors understand, but which many with a curiosity about battles appreciate at once. Not that words are secondary—American Voices is almost entirely the words of those who served—but necessary evidence is also present in the seeing and it is a balance that I seek."