Random House

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Random House Logo
Random House Logo

Random House is a publishing division of the German media conglomerate Bertelsmann based in New York City. It was founded in 1927 by Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer, two years after they had acquired the Modern Library imprint. Cerf is quoted as saying, "We just said we were going to publish a few books on the side at random," which suggested the name Random House. Bertelsmann acquired it amid controversy in 1998. [1]. With many publishing divisions, dozens of imprints, it is "the world's largest English-language general trade book publisher", according to the company web site. It publishes books in hardcover, trade paperback, mass market paperback, and as audio books, as well as in electronic and digital forms.[2]

The publisher's main U.S. office is located at 1745 Broadway in Manhattan, in a 684-foot tower completed in 2003 and spanning the entire west side of the block between West 55th Street and west 56th. Its lobby showcases floor-to-ceiling glassed-in bookcases filled with books published by the company's many imprints.

Contents

[edit] Divisions and imprints

[edit] Bantam Dell

The Bantam Dell group includes Bantam Books, founded in 1945, and Dell Publishing, of similar vintage. Bantam and Dell each publish both fiction and nonfiction for the adult market, primarily in paperback form. Notable novelists published by Bantam include Dean Koontz, Tom Robbins, Elizabeth George, George R.R. Martin and many others. Authors whose works are issued by Dell include Danielle Steel and John Grisham. Imprints in this group include the following:

  • Bantam Dell Hardcover
  • Bantam Dell Mass Market
  • Bantam Dell Trade Paperback
  • Crimeline
  • Delacorte
  • Dell
  • Delta
  • Domain
  • DTP
  • Fanfare
  • Island
  • Spectra
  • The Dial Press

[edit] Crown Publishing Group

The Crown Publishing Group traces its history to Crown Publishers, Inc., founded in 1933. Its imprints include:

  • Bell Tower
  • Clarkson Potter
  • Crown Business
  • Crown Publishers, Inc.
  • Harmony Books
  • Potter Style
  • Potter Craft
  • Prima Health
  • Shaye Areheart Books
  • Three Rivers Press

[edit] Doubleday Broadway

The Doubleday Broadway Group began as the publisher Doubleday & McClure Company in 1897, founded by Frank Nelson Doubleday and magazine publisher Samuel McClure. Before Doubleday and McClure parted company three years later, they issued the bestselling book The Day's Work by Rudyard Kipling, who nicknamed Doubleday "effendi" as a play on Doubleday's initials F.N.D. Modern-day imprints in this group include the following:

  • Broadway Books
  • Harlem Moon
  • Currency
  • Doubleday
  • Doubleday Image
  • Doubleday Religious Publishing
  • Main Street Books
  • Morgan Road Books
  • Nan A. Talese
  • Spiegel & Grau

[edit] Knopf Publishing Group

The Knopf Publishing Group takes its name from the American publisher Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., founded in 1915. Random House acquired Knopf in 1960 and Pantheon Books 1961; works continue to be published under these imprints with editorial independence. A longtime producer of hardcover fiction and nonfiction, Knopf has published classic works by Thomas Mann, Willa Cather and John Cheever, and currently features such authors as Toni Morrison, John Updike, Cormac McCarthy, Alice Munro, Anne Rice, and Anne Tyler. Its imprints include:

  • Alfred A. Knopf
  • Anchor Books
  • Everyman's Library
  • Pantheon Books
  • Schocken Books
  • Vintage

[edit] Random House Publishing Group

Considered the "flagship imprint" of Random House, Inc., the Random House Publishing Group traces its history to 1925 when Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer purchased the Modern Library line of classics and contemporary American titles from publisher Horace Liveright. The company assumed the name Random House in 1927. The Random House group also includes Ballantine Books, founded in 1952. A major publisher of hardcover, trade paperback, and mass market paperbacks, Ballantine was acquired by Random House in 1973. Ballantine has a backlist of over 3,000 titles. Del Rey Manga publishes English manga in North America. Ballantine's imprints include

  • Ballantine Books
  • Ballantine Reader's Circle
  • Del Rey
  • Del Rey/LucasBooks
  • Fawcett
  • Ivy
  • One World
  • Wellspring.

Other imprints in the Random House Publishing Group are as follows:

  • Random House Trade Group
  • Villard Books
  • The Modern Library
  • Random House Trade Paperbacks
  • Strivers Row Books

[edit] Random House Audio Publishing Group

The Random House Audio Publishing Group is the leading American publisher of audio books for adults and children, offering titles on compact disc, audio cassette and by digital download in both abridged and unabridged editions. Audio titles are issued in conjunction with their respective printed editions. In addition, the group acquires selected titles from other publishers to be issued in audio form. Imprints include:

  • Listening Library
  • Random House Audio
  • Random House Audio Assets
  • Random House Audio Dimensions
  • Random House Audio Roads
  • Random House Audio Voices
  • Random House Audio Price-less

[edit] Random House Direct, Inc.

Random House Direct, Inc. publishes specialty titles, mostly food-related, marketed and delivered directly to the home. Its imprints include:

  • Bon Appétit
  • Gourmet Books
  • Pillsbury

[edit] Random House Information Group

Random House Information Group is the reference book division. Random House entered reference publishing in 1947 with the American College Dictionary, which was followed in 1966 by its first unabridged dictionary. It publishes today the Random House Webster's Unabridged and Random House Webster's College dictionaries, probably the main competitors for Merriam-Webster reference titles. The group also includes Fodor's Travel Publications, the world's largest publisher of English-language travel information. Its imprints are as follows:

  • Fodor's Travel Publications
  • Living Language
  • Prima Games
  • Princeton Review
  • Random House Español
  • Random House Puzzles & Games
  • Random House Reference Publishing

[edit] Waterbrook Press

WaterBrook Press is the religious publishing division of Random House. Founded in September 1996, the group issued its first books in February 1998 Its authors include Jane Kirkpatrick and Charlie Peacock. Its imprints include

  • Fisherman Bible Study Guides
  • Shaw Books (formerly Harold Shaw Publishers)
  • Waterbrook Press

[edit] Other groups

Random House Large Print Publishing issues large print hardcover editions of fiction and non-fiction titles from Random House and other publishers, at the same price as the regular hardcover editions. Its only imprint is called Random House Large Print. The Random House Value Publishing group offers bargain and promotional editions of books from Random House and other publishers. Its imprint is Random House Value Publishing.

Random House has been the distributor for Shambhala Publications since 1974. Since 2003, they have begun distributing Rizzoli Books, Candlewick Press, National Geographic Books, Steerforth Press, Wizards of the Coast, Vertical Books, Welcome Books, Taunton Press, New York Review of Books, Hatherleigh Press, North Atlantic Books, Titan, Osprey Publishing, Culture Smart Guides, and Top That!.

[edit] Random House Children's Books

The Random House Children's Books division publishes a wide range of board books, picture books, activity books and novels for a variety of age groups, from pre-school children to young adult readers. It publishes the Dr. Seuss books (a line that began in 1957 with the publication of The Cat in the Hat) as well as titles by Judy Blume, Roald Dahl, Carl Hiaasen, Madeleine L'Engle, Christopher Paolini, Gary Paulsen, Tamora Pierce, Philip Pullman, Louis Sachar and many other major authors. Random House also acquired the properties of Golden Books line of children's books in August, 2001. The children's books division has two publishing groups, with many imprints that parallel the adult ones. They include:

[edit] Knopf Delacorte Dell Young Readers Group

  • Alfred A. Knopf
  • Bantam
  • Crown
  • David Fickling Books
  • Delacorte Press
  • Doubleday
  • Dragonfly Books
  • Laurel-Leaf Books
  • Schwartz & Wade Books
  • Wendy Lamb Books
  • Yearling Books

[edit] Random House/Golden Books Young Readers Group

  • Beginner Books
  • Disney Books for Young Readers
  • First Time Books
  • Landmark Books
  • Picturebacks
  • Sesame Workshop
  • Step into Reading
  • Stepping Stone Books

[edit] Random House in the UK

In the United Kingdom, the Random House Group Limited comprises four divisions with different publishing remits: Random House, Transworld, Ebury and Random House Children's Books. Its imprints include Jonathan Cape, Harvill Secker, Chatto and Windus, Vintage, Pimlico, Yellow Jersey, Century, Willian Heinemann, Hutchinson, Arrow, Random House Audio Books, Random House Business Books, Ebury Press, Vermilion, Rider, Bantam Press, Doubleday, Corgi, Black Swan, Fodor, Time Out, WaterBrook Press and Mainstream. Tanoshimi publishes English manga in United Kingdom and Ireland.

[edit] Random House International

The company's international group includes over 100 publishers in 13 countries. Among its imprints are the following:

  • Ebury and Transworld (Great Britain)
  • Plaza & Janés (Spain))
  • Sudamericana (Argentina)
  • Goldmann (Germany)
  • Świat Książki (Poland)
  • Areté
  • McClelland & Stewart Ltd.
  • Random House Australia
  • Random House of Canada Limited
  • Random House Mondadori
  • Random House South Africa
  • Random House South America
  • Random House United Kingdom
  • Transworld UK
  • Verlagsgruppe Random House

[edit] Random House Home Video

Random House Home Video created the Beginner Book Video series which included five Dr. Seuss Beginner Book Videos, one P. D. Eastman Beginner Book Video and two Berenstain Bears Beginner Book Videos.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Business: Bertelsmann admits Nazi past", BBC News World Edition, British Broadcasting Corporation, 2002-10-08. Retrieved on January 26, 2007.
  2. ^ Business Solutions: publishers. Random House web site. Random House. Retrieved on January 12, 2007.

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../r/a/n/Random_House_0f9b.html"