Eugene Exman

Eugene Exman (1 July 1900 – 10 October 1975) was a publisher and head of the religious books department for Harper & Row, where he worked with many prominent authors.

According to scholar Stephen Prothero, Exman helped transform the American religious landscape and was "the undisputed standard-bearer for religion publishing in the United States" who cleared the way for the "spiritual but not religious" identity claimed by more than a quarter of American adults today.

Biography Exman was born in Blanchester, Ohio on July 1, 1900. Exman's work became extremely influential, such as helping King become a bestseller with Stride Toward Freedom, and later Strength to Love and Why We Can't Wait. He broadened Harper's religious publishing from works aimed predominantly at Protestant denominations to a much wider audience including Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, and Catholic works.

In addition to his work publishing, Exman's own spiritual search for meaning led him to travel to India several years before the Beatles made it popular, and to experiment with LSD before Timothy Leary’s acid evangelism.

Legacy Exman's work in publishing helped transform the American religious landscape according to scholar Stephen Prothero, who wrote a biography of Exman and called him "the undisputed standard-bearer for religion publishing in the United States". Prothero argues that Exman saw the personal connection to the divine as essential to religion, and in publishing books exploring this, he cleared the way for the "spiritual but not religious" identity claimed by more than a quarter of American adults today.