Little, Brown and Company
Hachette Book Group USA | |
Founded | 1837 |
---|---|
Founder | |
Country of origin | United States |
Headquarters location | Boston (1837 to 2011) and New York City (2001 to present), U.S. |
Imprints | Back Bay Books; Mulholland Books; Jimmy Patterson Books; Little, Brown Spark; Voracious |
Official website | www |
Little, Brown and Company is an American publishing company founded in 1837 by Charles Coffin Little and James Brown in Boston. For close to two centuries, it has published fiction and nonfiction by American authors. Early lists featured Emily Dickinson's poetry and Bartlett's Familiar Quotations. Since 2006, Little, Brown and Company is a division of the Hachette Book Group.[1]
History
19th century
Little, Brown and Company had its roots in the book selling trade. It was founded in 1837 in Boston by Charles Little and James Brown.[1][2] They formed the partnership "for the purpose of Publishing, Importing, and Selling Books".[1] It can trace its roots before that to 1784 to a bookshop owned by Ebenezer Battelle on Marlborough Street.[1] They published works of Benjamin Franklin and George Washington, and specialized in legal publishing and importing titles.[3]
The company was the most extensive law publisher in the United States, and also the largest importer of standard English law and miscellaneous works, introducing American buyers to the Encyclopædia Britannica,[3] the dictionaries of William Smith, and many other standard works.[4] In the early years Little and Brown published the Works of Daniel Webster, George Bancroft's History of the United States,[3] William H. Prescott's Ferdinand and Isabella, Jones Very's first book of poetry (edited by Ralph Waldo Emerson), Letters of John Adams and works by James Russell Lowell and Francis Parkman. Little, Brown and Company was the American publisher for Edward Gibbon's The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.[1][3]
The firm was the original publisher of
In 1853, Little, Brown began publishing the works of British poets from Chaucer to Wordsworth. Ninety-six volumes were published in the series in five years.[6]
In 1859,
20th century
John Murray Brown died in 1908 and James W. McIntyre became managing partner. When McIntyre died in 1913, Little, Brown incorporated. In 1925, Little, Brown entered into an agreement to publish all
Salinger later terminated his contract with the publishing house sometime in the 1970s, though his novel was still published by Little, Brown.
Other prominent figures published by Little, Brown in the 20th and early 21st centuries have included
The company was purchased by
21st century
In 2001, Michael Pietsch became publisher of Little, Brown.
Little, Brown expanded into the
In 2006, the Time Warner Book Group was sold to French publisher
In 2011, Little, Brown launched an imprint devoted to suspense publishing: Mulholland Books.[12]
In February 2013, Reagan Arthur was selected to be publisher of Little, Brown, while closing her five-year-old imprint, Reagan Arthur Books.[13]
In October 2017, Little, Brown started an unnamed imprint devoted to health, lifestyle, psychology, and science with the appointment of Tracy Behar as the imprint's vice president, publisher, and editor-in-chief.[14] The imprint Little, Brown Spark launched in fall 2018[15] and has published authors such as Mark Hyman, Tricia Hersey, and Sue Johnson.
In October 2018, Little, Brown announced an imprint dedicated to illustrated books with Michael Szczerban as vice president and editorial director.[16][17] The Voracious imprint launched in fall 2019[18] and has published works by Accidentally Wes Anderson, Ayesha Curry, Vivian Howard, Christopher Kimball's Milk Street, Marcus Samuelsson, and Pete Souza, among others.[19][20]
In February 2020, Hachette Book Group acquired 1,000 titles for young readers from Disney Book Group for Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.[21]
In May 2020, Bruce Nichols became publisher of Little, Brown's adult imprints.[22]
See also
- Badminton Library
- Books in the United States
- List of largest UK book publishers
- Little, Brown Book Group
References
- ^ a b c d e "Little, Brown.com - 175th Anniversary". www.littlebrown.com. Archived from the original on May 13, 2016. Retrieved May 1, 2016.
- ISBN 9780824086954.
- ^ a b c d Lynde, John H. (October 28, 1969). "Editorial Correspondence". Whig & Courier.
- ^ One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Wilson, J. G.; Fiske, J., eds. (1892). . Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton.
- ^ "Statutes at Large". Library of Congress. Retrieved June 6, 2012.
- ^ a b c d e Oliver 1986
- ^ "Obituary", Publishers Weekly, January 11, 1913
- ^ Randall, J. G. (1961). The divided Union. Boston: Little, Brown.
- ^ "Paid Notice: Deaths
SINGH, DR". The New York Times. March 10, 2010. Archived from the original on August 8, 2021. Retrieved August 8, 2021. - ProQuest 405447754.
- ProQuest 109602203. Retrieved January 29, 2021.
- ^ "Little, Brown and Company Announces New Suspense Imprint's Name and Launch List". Book Business. June 18, 2010. Retrieved February 8, 2016.
- ^ "News Briefs: Week of February 11, 2013". Publishers Weekly. February 8, 2013. Retrieved April 20, 2020.
- ^ Maher, John (October 30, 2017). "Tracy Behar Named Publisher, Editor-in-Chief of New Little, Brown Imprint". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved April 20, 2020.
- ^ "Tracy Behar Names New Imprint, Little, Brown Spark" (Press release). March 15, 2018. Retrieved April 20, 2020 – via Publishers Weekly.
- ^ "Michael Szczerban named VP, Editorial Director of New Imprint at Little, Brown and Company". Hachette Book Group. October 24, 2018. Retrieved March 26, 2023.
- ^ Maher, John (October 25, 2018). "Szczerban to Helm New Imprint at Little, Brown". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved March 26, 2023.
- ^ "Meet Voracious". Hachette Book Group. Archived from the original on March 26, 2023. Retrieved March 26, 2023.
- ^ "Voracious". Hachette Book Group. May 2, 2019. Retrieved March 26, 2023.
- ^ "LB Illustrated Imprint Gets Name, Team". Publishers Weekly. May 28, 2019. Archived from the original on March 26, 2023. Retrieved March 26, 2023.
- ^ Milliot, Jim (February 6, 2020). "HBG Buys More Than 1,000 Disney Book Group Titles". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved April 20, 2020.
- ^ Deahl, Rachel (April 15, 2020). "HMH's Bruce Nichols Tapped to Head Little, Brown". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved March 26, 2023.
Further reading
- Little, Brown and Company, One Hundred Years of Publishing, 1837-1937. Boston, MA: Little, Brown & Co.
- Oliver, Bill (1986), "Little, Brown and Company", in Peter Dzwonkonski (ed.), Dictionary of Literary Biography - Volume Forty-nine - American Literary Publishing Houses, 1638–1899 Part 1: A–M. Detroit, MI: Gale Research Company.
External links
- Official website (Little, Brown and Company)
- Little, Brown Book Group | Hachette UK