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| Parent company | Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group (Random House) |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1897 |
| Founder | Frank Nelson Doubleday and Samuel McClure |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Headquarters location | New York City |
| Publication types | Books |
| Official website | doubleday.knopfdoubleday.com |
Doubleday is an American publishing company.
Contents |
History [edit]
The firm was founded as Doubleday & McClure Company in 1897 by Frank Nelson Doubleday,[1] who had formed a partnership with the magazine publisher Samuel McClure. One of their first bestsellers was The Day's Work by Rudyard Kipling. Other authors published by the company in its early years include W. Somerset Maugham and Joseph Conrad. Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. later served as a vice-president of the company.
In 1900, the company became Doubleday, Page & Company when Walter Hines Page joined as a new partner. In 1922, the founder's son, Nelson Doubleday, joined the firm.
In 1910, Doubleday, Page, and Co. moved its operations to Garden City, which include its own train station.[2] The Doubleday company purchased much of the land on the west side of Franklin Avenue, and estate homes were built for many of its executives on Fourth Street. In 1916, company co-founder and Garden City resident Walter Hines Page was named Ambassador to Great Britain.
In 1927, Doubleday merged with the George H. Doran Company, creating Doubleday, Doran, then the largest publishing business in the English-speaking world. In 1946, the company became Doubleday and Company. Nelson Doubleday resigned as president, but continued as chairman of the board until his death on January 11, 1949. Douglas Black took over and was president from 1946 to 1963.[3] By 1947, Doubleday was the largest publisher in the US, with annual sales of over 30 million books.
Doubleday's son-in-law John Sargent was president and CEO from 1963 to 1978; his son John Turner Sargent, Jr. was a business associate in the publishing division.[4] The younger Sargent succeeded his father as chairman from 1978 to 1985, and after that became chairman of the executive committee. He later moved to the Macmillan Company, where he is now CEO.
In 1978 Nelson Doubleday, Jr. became president of the company. In 1980, it bought the New York Mets baseball team.
Doubleday sold the publishing company to Bertelsmann in 1986. In 1988, it became part of the Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, which in turn became a division of Random House in 1998.
In late 2008 and early 2009, the Doubleday imprint was merged with Knopf Publishing Group to form the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.[5]
Presidents [edit]
- Frank Doubleday, founder, 1897-1922
- Nelson Doubleday, 1922-1946
- Douglas Black, 1946-1963
- John Turner Sargent, Sr., 1963-1978
- Nelson Doubleday, Jr., 1978-1986 and sale to Bertelsmann.
Notable editors [edit]
- Dean Giles McGregor
- Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (Senior Editor)
- Stewart 'Sandy' Richardson
Notable authors [edit]
Imprints [edit]
The following are imprints that exist or have existed under Doubleday:
- Anchor Books, produced quality paperbacks for bookstores; named for the anchor that (along with a dolphin) forms Doubleday's colophon; now part of the Knopf Publishing Group's Vintage Anchor unit
- Blakiston Co., medical and scientific books. Sold in 1947 to McGraw-Hill
- Blue Ribbon Books, purchased in 1939 from Reynal & Hitchcock
- Book League of America, contemporary and world classic literature, purchased in 1936
- The Crime Club, active through much of the 20th century, publishing mystery and detective novels, most notably the Fu Manchu series by Sax Rohmer and the Saint series by Leslie Charteris
- Garden City Publishing Co., originally established as a separate firm by Nelson Doubleday, Garden City's books were primarily reprints of books first offered by Doubleday, printed from the original plates but on less expensive paper. It was named for the village on New York's Long Island in which Doubleday was long headquartered (until 1986), and which still houses Bookspan, the direct marketer of general interest and specialty book clubs run by Doubleday Direct and Book of the Month Club holdings.
- Image Books, Catholic Books—still a Doubleday unit as part of Doubleday Religious Publishing
- Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, a literary imprint established in 1990. Talese, the imprint's publisher and editorial director, is a senior vice president of Doubleday.
- Permabooks, paperback division established in 1948
- Rimington & Hooper, high-quality limited editions
- Triangle Books, purchased in 1939 from Reynal & Hitchcock; sold inexpensive books through chain stores
- Zenith Books, aimed at African-American youths
Bookstores [edit]
- Doubleday Bookstores were purchased by Barnes & Noble in 1990 and operated by B. Dalton.[6]
References [edit]
- ^ "History". randomhouse.com.
- ^ Newportvintagebooks.com
- ^ http://diglib.princeton.edu/ead/getEad?eadid=C0858&kw=
- ^ John Turner Sargent
- ^ [1] Shakeups hit Random House, other publishers
- ^ Doubleday Bookstores merged into B. Dalton
External links [edit]
- Doubleday official site
- Collection of Doubleday and Co. drafts, proofs, and other material re At Ease: Stories I Tell to Friends, and The White House Years by Dwight D. Eisenhower, Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library
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