About OfficialSaga

We started OfficialSaga to build the bookshelf serious readers actually keep: the one with hardcover anthologies that hold up, edited with care, paired with credible introductions and built to last.

Why "saga"

"Saga" means the long-form story, an arc rather than an episode. Most writers worth reading don't fit in a single book. They build a body of work over decades that scatters across publishers, magazines, paperbacks, and forgotten archives. We collect those arcs into single definitive editions. That's the whole brand.

Our first edition

The Anthony Bourdain Reader was the obvious place to start. Bourdain wrote across seven books, more than a hundred magazine pieces, two TV shows' worth of writing, and a notebook archive most readers have never seen. He also died with a body of work that deserved a definitive edition: not a celebrity tie-in, not a posthumous cash-grab, but a serious hardcover anthology built by people who actually knew the work.

We worked with Kimberly Witherspoon, Bourdain's literary agent for more than 20 years, on the editorial selection. Patrick Radden Keefe, author of Empire of Pain and Say Nothing, wrote the foreword. The volume includes:

  • Curated selections from every Bourdain book, from Kitchen Confidential through World Travel
  • Rediscovered magazine work from Esquire, The New Yorker, Lucky Peach, and others
  • Full-color reproductions of his France 1973 diary (handwritten, age 17, his first trip outside the US)
  • Handwritten kitchen poems from the Les Halles years
  • The Salty Horse graphic novel excerpt with Joel Rose (originally Dark Horse, 2018)

What we're not

We're not a celebrity-author imprint. We don't do quick tie-ins. We don't release books on the anniversary of an author's death for marketing reasons. We don't manufacture personalities; we collect the writing that personalities already produced and present it the way it deserves.

We're also not a publisher in the traditional sense. We license existing rights, work with the editor and estate to curate the volume, and produce the hardcover edition. The writing is the writer's. The curation is the editor's. We handle the production, the format, and the bookstore.

How we choose what's next

Three criteria:

  1. The writer has a body of work spanning at least a decade and three publishers.
  2. There is material (magazine, archival, unpublished) that has never been collected.
  3. There is an editor or estate representative who knew the work intimately and is willing to curate.

Trademark and affiliation

OfficialSaga is an independent retailer of editions we license and produce. We are not endorsed by, sponsored by, or affiliated with the Anthony Bourdain estate, CNN, ZPZ Productions, or HarperCollins. The Anthony Bourdain Reader is edited by Kimberly Witherspoon under license; OfficialSaga is the retailer of the hardcover edition only.

OfficialSaga LLC · Founded 2026 · Customer support: support@officialsaga.com