E. P. Dutton was an American

book publishing Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...

company. It was founded as a book retailer in

Boston, Massachusetts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, in 1852 by Edward Payson Dutton. Since 1986, it has been an imprint of

Penguin Group Penguin Group is a British trade book publisher and part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by the German media company, media Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Bertelsmann. The new company was created by a Mergers and acquisitions, mer ...

Creator

Edward Payson Dutton (January 1, 1831 in

Keene, New Hampshire Keene is a city in Cheshire County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 23,047 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, down from 23,409 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. It is the county seat and the only city in ...

DUTTON, Edward Payson
p. 330; in ''

Who's Who in America Marquis Who's Who, also known as A.N. Marquis Company ( or ), is an American publisher of a number of directories containing short biographies. The books usually are entitled ''Who's Who in...'' followed by some subject, such as ''Who's Who in A ...

'' (1901–1902 edition); via archive.org – 1923) was a prominent American

book publisher Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...

. In 1852, Dutton founded the E. P. Dutton bookselling company in

. The business sold fiction and non-fiction, and within a short time expanded into the selling of

children's literature Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. In addition to conventional literary genres, modern children's literature is classified by the intended age of the reade ...

. In 1864, he opened a branch office to sell books in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

and in 1869 moved his company's headquarters there and entered the book publishing business. From 1888 onward, he started working with Ernest Nister. In 1906, Dutton struck what proved to be a significant deal with the English publishing company of J. M. Dent to be the American distributor of the

Everyman's Library Everyman's Library is a series of reprints of classic literature, primarily from the Western canon. It began in 1906. It is currently published in hardback by Random House. It was originally an imprint of J. M. Dent (itself later a division ...

series of

classic literature A classic is an outstanding example of a particular style; something of lasting worth or with a timeless quality; of the first or highest quality, class, or rank – something that exemplifies its class. The word can be an adjective (a ''c ...

reprints. Edward Dutton died in 1923, aged 92, but his company continued to flourish and today is an imprint of the

History

Dutton expanded to

in 1864, where it began publishing religious books. In 1906, Dutton made a deal with English publishing company J. M. Dent to be the American distributor of the

series of classic literature reprints. John Macrae joined the company in 1885 as an office boy, and in 1923 was named president. In 1928, the publishing and retail divisions were split into two separate businesses with Macrae acquiring the publishing side, operating as E. P. Dutton and Company, Inc. It published children's books under the Unicorn imprint, with some books published in the 1990s.

Dutton Children's Books Dutton Children's Books is a US publisher of children's books and a division of the Penguin Group. It is associated with the Dutton adult division. It was previously an imprint of E. P. Dutton, prior to 1986. They have been publishing books si ...

continues today. In 1975, Dutton was acquired by the Dutch publisher

Elsevier Elsevier ( ) is a Dutch academic publishing company specializing in scientific, technical, and medical content. Its products include journals such as ''The Lancet'', ''Cell (journal), Cell'', the ScienceDirect collection of electronic journals, ...

. The following year, Dutton bought

Hawthorn Books Hawthorn Books was an American publishing firm located in New York City that operated from 1952 to 1977. Originally founded as a subsidiary of Prentice-Hall, Hawthorn Books went out of business after its publishing assets were acquired by E. P. Dut ...

from W. H. Allen & Co. Dutton lost money under Dutch ownership, and the company was sold to the buyout firm Dyson-Kissner-Moran in 1981. The paperback publisher

New American Library The New American Library (also known as NAL) is an American publisher based in New York, founded in 1948. Its initial focus was affordable paperback reprints of classics and scholarly works as well as popular and pulp fiction, but it now publi ...

acquired Dutton in 1985. New American Library was acquired by Penguin Group in 1986, and split into two imprints: Dutton and

. Dutton is now a boutique imprint within Penguin Group, publishing approximately 40 books for adults per year, half of them fiction and half non-fiction. After the acquisition by Penguin, books to which Penguin acquired the rights as part of the acquisition of Dutton were published in paperback under the imprint Puffin Unicorn (because Puffin has been the longtime paperback imprint for the Penguin Group). Penguin merged with

Random House Random House is an imprint and publishing group of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1927 by businessmen Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer as an imprint of Modern Library, it quickly overtook Modern Library as the parent imprint. Over the foll ...

to form

Penguin Random House Penguin Random House Limited is a British-American multinational corporation, multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate publishing company formed on July 1, 2013, with the merger of Penguin Books and Random House. Penguin Books was or ...

in 2013. In 2017, sister imprint Blue Rider Press was closed and its books were moved to Dutton.

Book series

* Dutton Obelisk * Dutton Paperbacks *

* Studio Vista/Dutton Pictureback * Sunrise Book * Told to the Children Series * Unicorn BooksUnicorn Books (E. P. Dutton) – Book Series List
publishing history.com. Retrieved May 24, 2018.

References

External links

Dutton imprint page at Penguin USA

* ttps://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/search.jsp?Erp=20&N=38537+38533+37910+33398+4288205036&view=grid Children's books by E. P. Duttonat

Toronto Public Library Toronto Public Library (TPL) is a public library system in Toronto, Ontario. It is the largest public library system in Canada, and in 2023 had averaged a higher circulation per capita than any other public library system internationally, making i ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dutton, E.P. Book publishing companies of the United States Publishing companies established in 1864 Publishing companies established in 1852 1852 establishments in Massachusetts

Creator

History

Book series

References

Further reading

External links