Hayward Cirker; Founded Dover Paperback Publisher

Hayward Cirker, 82, the founder and president of eclectic paperback publisher Dover Publications. Cirker built Dover into a paperback powerhouse by delving deep into the public domain and reprinting thousands of out-of-print novels, illustrations, manuals and scientific texts. The company’s titles ranged from ancient tragedy to “Build Your Own Inexpensive Dollhouse.” Born in New York City, Cirker graduated from City College of New York in 1936 at 19. He worked as a salesman for Crown Publishing for several years before deciding to start his own firm. He and his wife, Blanche, founded Dover in 1941 as a mail-order business for remaindered books. Dover grew rapidly in the 1950s, riding the public’s appetite for cheap paperbacks, skipping the pulp romances and detective novels favored at the time and continuing to find quirky classics and practical fare. Included in Dover’s large catalog are 60 Nobel Prize winners and some high-end publications, including clothbound editions of the writings of Henry David Thoreau. By the 1980s, Dover had grown into a $15-million-a-year publishing house, and remained privately held. Cirker visited the company offices three days a week until his death. On Wednesday in Roslyn, N.Y.