How a small Boston publisher came to put out the first bound volumes of the Pentagon Papers

Beacon Broadside recounts how Beacon Press came to publish the first bound volume of the Pentagon Papers after Daniel Ellsberg leaked them and Sen. Mike Gravel tried to find a publisher for them, in 1971.

After dozens of trade and university publishing houses had rejected Gravel's proposal, and despite political and financial risk, Beacon Press, then helmed by director Gobin Stair, agreed to take on the publication of the papers. As a result, President Nixon personally attacked Beacon, Stair was subpoenaed to appear at Daniel Ellsberg's trial, and J. Edgar Hoover approved an FBI subpoena of the press and its financial records.

None of this deterred Beacon or the Unitarian Universalist Association (under which auspices Beacon publishes) from doing what was right. Reflecting on Ellsberg’s courage and Beacon’s connection to that moment in history, current director Gayatri Patnaik commented, "Daniel Ellsberg’s incredible fortitude stands as an example for all who believe in fighting for democracy and government accountability and who oppose war and the proliferation of nuclear weapons. We are incredibly proud to have taken the stand we did in releasing the Pentagon Papers. Today, over 50 years later, we are still guided by the principles that led to that brave decision."