| Parent company | Penguin Group |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1852 |
| Founder | Edward Payson Dutton |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Headquarters location | New York, New York |
| Publication types | Books |
E. P. Dutton was an American book publishing company founded as a book retailer in Boston, Massachusetts in 1852 by Edward Payson Dutton. In 1986, the company was acquired by Penguin Group and split into two imprints: Dutton and Dutton Children's Books.
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Edward Payson Dutton founded a book-selling firm in Boston, in 1852 the eponymous E. P. Dutton, but it wasn't until 1864 when a branch office was set up in New York, that the company began to publish books. Its original focus was on religious titles, and the first bestseller was the two-volume Life of Christ by Frederic Farrar, published in 1874.
1885, John Macrae began working at Dutton as an office boy; he would spend fifty-nine years with the company rising in the ranks. He became President in 1923, and in 1928 he bought the publishing house and shared it with his two sons. During his tenure, E. P. Dutton published notable books such as The Proper Bostonians by Cleveland Amory, Marchette Chute's Shakespeare of London, Pipiolo and the Roof Dogs by Brian Meunier, The Conquest of Everest by John Hunt, Bonjour Tristesse by Francoise Sagan, as well as works by Lawrence Durrell, Milton Glaser, and Luigi Pirandello. The company also went on to publish books by John Irving (The World According to Garp), Peter Matthiessen, Jorge Luis Borges, Gavin Maxwell, Joyce Carol Oates, Gail Sheehy (Passages), and Mickey Spillane.
Dutton Children's Books is one of the oldest continually operating children's book publishers in the United States whose books include the Winnie-the-Pooh stories.
E. P. Dutton ceased to exist as an independent company in 1985, when New American Library brought the company, which in turn acquired by Viking Penguin (now Penguin Group USA) a year later, splitting into both imprints: Dutton and Dutton Children's Books.
A century and a half after Dutton sold its first book, the publishing house has maintained its ability to get great books into the hands of many readers. In 2006 and 2007 one in every four books published by Dutton hit the New York Times bestseller list. With an eye toward a focused list of titles, Dutton currently publishes 45 hardcovers a year, roughly half fiction and half non-fiction. Dutton is currently home to many #1 New York Times bestselling authors, including Harlan Coben, author of Long Lost, Caught and many other novels, Ken Follett, author of Pillars of the Earth, World Without End, Fall of Giants, Eckhart Tolle, author of A New Earth, and Linda Fairstein, author of Hell Gate. Dutton also publishes the New York Times bestselling authors Eric Jerome Dickey, author of Pleasure and Tempted by Trouble, Raymond Khoury, author of The Sign, The Last Templar and its sequel The Templar Salvation, John Lescroart, author of Plague of Secrets, Treasure Hunt, John Hodgman, author of The Areas of My Expertise and More Information Than You Require, Jenny McCarthy, author of Baby Laughs, Louder than Words and Healing and Preventing Autism, and Daniel Levitin, author of This is Your Brain on Music and The World in Six Songs.
Dutton is also home to many award-winning authors such as Diane Johnson, author of Le Divorce and Lulu in Marakech, Daniel Levitin, Timothy Keller, author of The Reason for God and The Prodigal God, and T. Jefferson Parker, author of L.A. Outlaws and Iron River.