Arthur Ceppos

Arthur Ceppos was the head of Hermitage House Publishing House during the 1950s.

One particularly topical story concerning Arthur Ceppos is from the recorded lectures of the late L. Ron Hubbard.
(1911-1986)
According to Hubbard himself in one of the many versions of the story of Hubbard's involvement with Hermitage House and Arthur Ceppos. Hubbard related in the second lecture of the "HAS Course Lecture Series" to an audience of Dianetics Students.

Several versions of which had been circulated in public lectures and printed reviews since the late 1950s.

Hubbard was more than happy to tell that in 1950 Arthur Ceppos had recently inherited control of his family publishing business Hermitage House.(USA) in the late 1940s and was on friendly terms with Hubbard through the agency of Hubbard's Science Fiction and Adventure editor John W.Campbell. (Editor of Astounding Science Fiction Magazine/Street and Smith).

Ceppos apparently had a slack printing schedule after a big print run and so he agreed to undertake a small trial print run of Hubbard's philosophical treatise on Dianetics (DMSMH) in early March 1950 after the assurances of an eager John W.Campbell.

The original cover artwork was a standard run-of-the-mill geometric green and black design of the time before the later exploding volcano design conceived by LRH.

Hubbard relates how he completed the manuscript in six weeks on th urgence of Campbell and on the night of the first print run arrived at the printers late that night and watched the first copies running off the press.

L. Ron Hubbard told this story to several audiences at many of his Dianetics Lectures in Elizabeth, New Jersey from 1951 onwards. One particularly early example attended by Joseph A.Winter MD, who had been asked to contribute a forward to this milestone work after the interest piqued by the manuscript "Original Thesis" (1948)circulated to many of the friends, family and colleagues of John W. Campbell.(Winter's Brother-in-Law).

Doctor Winter later resigned his position on the Board of the "Elizabeth Foundation" after personl differences with Hubbard concerning Hubbard's second wife and child.

Arthur Ceppos himself had a great deal of difficulty in re-couping his initial investment in the publication of DMSMH and thus in Winter 1952 resigned from his position in the Elizabeth Foundation after Hubbard had a serious dispute over Dianetics copyright ownership with his financial backer, the millionaire oil tycoon, Don Purcell.
Details of which are briefly mentioned in the book "A Doctor's Report on Dianetics"--- An erudite and learned work published much to the chagrin of Hubbard in 1951 and reproduced in 1997 by The Julian Press. USA)

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