Since the mid-1990s, some other small publishing houses have also emerged to pursue a similar approach, including Archipelago, Europa Editions, Melville House, Open Letter and Seven Stories Press. But New York Review Books has cast its net wider than most.

In addition to its classics series, which includes the Chekhov, it has divisions that specialize in children’s books, poetry (the Whitman book) and one edited by Michael Shae that produces collections of essays by contributors to the book review. A recent example is “After the Tall Timber,” a collection of Renata Adler’s nonfiction published in April, two years after it revived two of her novels, “Speedboat” and “Pitch Dark.”

The imprint operates from the same quarters on Hudson Street in the West Village as the book review publication, and contributors to the review are among those who make recommendations to Mr. Frank on what he might want to publish. (There is also a corner of its website where readers can make suggestions.) But the two entities have sought to maintain separate identities and finances.

“There is a relationship between the two, but it’s fairly tenuous,” said Mr. Buruma, whose 1994 book, “The Wages of Guilt,” about the legacy of World War II in Germany and Japan, will be reissued by the publishing arm in September. “The paper will often publish the introductions to the Classics as pieces adapted to the magazine, but that’s the only connection.”

Mr. Frank describes the publishing arm as analogous to “the great little vinyl record stores,” and the Classics series as “a not so small vinyl bin” that browsers can riffle through in search of something they like. The books have a uniform typeface and design that give them a common identity, in much the way that Blue Note Records releases look similar and encourage jazz fans to dip into the catalog.

“As a long-term strategy, that’s really the perfect model, because it gives you more passionate fans,” said Chad W. Post, the publisher of Open Letter, a competitor that specializes in literature in translation. “You are going to have a hard time competing on a grand scale with Penguin, Random House, F. S. G. or whoever else. So they’ve said, ‘We are going to find the most passionate fans who love all of our books, rather than take one book and try to outsell Penguin.’ ”

The imprint has lucked into the occasional best seller, which provides a financial cushion that allows Mr. Frank to take risks with more experimental works. A revival of John Williams’s 1965 novel, “Stoner,” for example, has been a commercial and critical success since its reissue in 2006, and not just in English: Translated into several languages, it has reached the top of the best-seller list in some European countries.