Free Press (publisher)

Last updated
Free Press
Parent company Simon & Schuster
Founded1947
FounderJeremiah Kaplan and Charles Liebman
Successor Simon & Schuster
Country of originUnited States
Headquarters location New York City, New York, U.S.
Key peopleMartha K. Levin, publisher

Free Press was an American independent book publisher that later became an imprint of Simon & Schuster. It was one of the best-known publishers specializing in serious nonfiction, including path-breaking sociology books of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. After a period under new ownership in the 1980s of publishing neoconservative books, it was purchased by Simon & Schuster in 1994. By 2012, the imprint ceased to exist as a distinct entity; however, some books were still being published using the Free Press imprint. [1] [2]

Contents

History

Free Press was founded by Jeremiah Kaplan (1926–1993) and Charles Liebman in 1947 and concentrated on religion and social science. [3] They chose the name Free Press because they wanted to print books devoted to civil liberties. It was launched with three classic titles: Division of Labor by Emile Durkheim, The Theory of Economic and Social Organization by Max Weber and The Scientific Outlook by Bertrand Russell. [4] It was headquartered in Glencoe, Illinois, where it was known as The Free Press of Glencoe.

In 1960, Kaplan was recruited by Macmillan to provide new editorial leadership and he agreed to move to New York if Macmillan Publishing Company would buy Free Press, and thus Free Press was sold in 1960 for $1.3 million ($500,000 going to Kaplan and $800,000 going to Liebman). [4]

In 1994, Simon & Schuster acquired Macmillan and Free Press. [4] In 2012, it was announced that Free Press would cease to exist as a distinct entity and would be merged into Simon & Schuster, the company's flagship imprint. [4] [1] "We plan to continue publishing thought leaders and other important cultural voices under the Free Press imprimatur, while also introducing many other Free Press authors, such as novelists and historians and business writers, to the flagship Simon & Schuster imprint." [4]

During the 1960s and 1970s Free Press was under the direction of a variety of publishers including George McCune (who later co-founded SAGE Publishing with his wife Sara), Valery Webb, Ed Barry and Robert Wallace. [4] Under Barry's leadership in 1974, Ernest Becker's The Denial of Death won the Pulitzer Prize. [4] In 1983, Erwin Glikes, a well-known political neoconservative, took over leadership. [4] This began an era of controversial [4] conservative books including The Tempting of America by Robert Bork, and The Closing of the American Mind by Allan Bloom. [4] Glikes was succeeded by Adam Bellow, who also published neoconservative books including Illiberal Education by Dinesh D'Souza, The Real Anita Hill by David Brock, and The Bell Curve by Charles Murray and Richard Herrnstein. [5] [4] In 1994, Simon & Schuster acquired Macmillan and Free Press was led by publishers Michael Jacobs, Paula Barker Duffy, and William Shinker for short stints. [4]

Free Press was led by publisher Martha Levin from 2001 until 2012, when it ceased to exist as a distinct entity and merged into Simon & Schuster's flagship imprint. [4] [6] In 2003, two of the five finalists for the 2003 National Book Award in the non-fiction category were Free Press titles, including the winner, Waiting for Snow in Havana by Carlos Eire. [7] In 2008, Free Press published The White Tiger , Indian author Aravind Adiga's debut novel, which won the Man Booker Prize. [8]

Notable books

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Simon & Schuster</span> American publishing company

Simon & Schuster LLC is an American publishing company owned by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924, by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. Along with Penguin Random House, Hachette, HarperCollins and Macmillan Publishers, Simon & Schuster is considered one of the 'Big Five' English language publishers. As of 2017 Simon & Schuster was the third largest publisher in the United States, publishing 2,000 titles annually under 35 different imprints.

Macmillan Publishers is a British publishing company traditionally considered to be one of the 'Big Five' English language publishers. Founded in London in 1843 by Scottish brothers Daniel and Alexander MacMillan, the firm would soon establish itself as a leading publisher in Britain. It published two of the best-known works of Victorian era children's literature, Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book (1894).

David Herbert Donald was an American historian, best known for his 1995 biography of Abraham Lincoln. He twice won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography for earlier works; he published more than 30 books on United States political and literary figures and the history of the American South.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Scribner's Sons</span> American publisher

Charles Scribner's Sons, or simply Scribner's or Scribner, is an American publisher based in New York City, known for publishing American authors including Henry James, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Kurt Vonnegut, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Stephen King, Robert A. Heinlein, Thomas Wolfe, George Santayana, John Clellon Holmes, Don DeLillo, and Edith Wharton.

Bruce Eric Kaplan is an American cartoonist whose single-panel cartoons frequently appear in The New Yorker. His cartoons are known for their signature simple style and often dark humor. Kaplan is also a screenwriter and has worked on Seinfeld and on Six Feet Under. Kaplan wove his New Yorker cartooning into Seinfeld with the episode, "The Cartoon." He graduated from Wesleyan University and studied there with Professor Jeanine Basinger.

Pearson Education, known since 2011 as simply Pearson, is the educational publishing and services subsidiary of the international corporation Pearson plc. The subsidiary was formed in 1998, when Pearson plc acquired Simon & Schuster's educational business and combined it with Pearson's existing education company Addison-Wesley Longman. Pearson Education was restyled as simply Pearson in 2011. In 2016, the diversified parent corporation Pearson plc rebranded to focus entirely on education publishing and services, and as of 2023 Pearson Education is Pearson plc's main subsidiary.

Andrew Hacker is an American political scientist and public intellectual.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stanley Weintraub</span> American historian and biographer (1929–2019)

Stanley Weintraub was an American historian and biographer and an expert on George Bernard Shaw.

Hachette Book Group (HBG) is a publishing company owned by Hachette Livre, the largest publishing company in France, and the third largest trade and educational publisher in the world. Hachette Livre is a wholly owned subsidiary of Lagardère Group. HBG was formed when Hachette Livre purchased the Time Warner Book Group from Time Warner on March 31, 2006. Its headquarters are located at 1290 Avenue of the Americas, Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Hachette is considered one of the "big five" publishing companies, along with Holtzbrinck/Macmillan, Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, and Simon & Schuster. In one year, HBG publishes approximately 1400+ adult books, 300 books for young readers, and 450 audiobook titles. In 2017, the company had 167 books on the New York Times bestseller list, 34 of which reached No. 1.

Sean Covey is an American business executive, author, and speaker. He is President of FranklinCovey Education and also serves as Executive Vice President of Global Partnerships. Covey's works include The 4 Disciplines of Execution, The 6 Most Important Decisions You'll Ever Make, The 7 Habits of Happy Kids, and The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens, which has been translated into 20 languages and sold over 8 million copies worldwide.

Bibliography of works by American author and journalist Hunter S. Thompson.

Macmillan Inc. was an American book publishing company originally established as the American division of the British Macmillan Publishers. The two were later separated and acquired by other companies, with the remnants of the original American division of Macmillan present in McGraw-Hill Education's Macmillan/McGraw-Hill textbooks, Gale's Macmillan Reference USA division, and some trade imprints of Simon & Schuster that were transferred when both companies were owned by Paramount Communications.

Aravind Adiga is an Indian writer and journalist. His debut novel, The White Tiger, won the 2008 Man Booker Prize.

Pronoun was a New York–based company that provided free book publishing, marketing, and analytics services to authors. Pronoun was launched in 2015.

Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy, known by her pen name SARK, is an American author and illustrator of self-help books. Five of her sixteen books have been national bestsellers, and she has sold more than two million copies of her books.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">U.S. senator bibliography (congressional memoirs)</span> Overview of United States congressional memoirs

This is a bibliography of U.S. congressional memoirs by former and current U.S. senators.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Penguin Random House</span> Anglo-American multinational conglomerate publishing company

Penguin Random House LLC is an Anglo-American multinational conglomerate publishing company formed on July 1, 2013, with the merger of Penguin Group and Random House. Penguin Books was originally founded in 1935 and Random House was founded in 1927. Along with Simon & Schuster, Hachette, HarperCollins and Macmillan Publishers, Penguin Random House is considered one of the 'Big Five' English language publishers.

Gallery Publishing Group is a general interest publisher and a division of Simon & Schuster which houses the imprints Gallery Books, Pocket Books, Scout Press, Gallery 13, and Saga Press.

This bibliography of Dwight D. Eisenhower is a list of published works about Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th president of the United States.

References

  1. 1 2 Ben Sisario (October 23, 2012). "After Consolidation at Simon & Schuster, Top Two at Free Press Are Leaving". New York Times . Retrieved October 23, 2012.
  2. ↑ Lyall, Sarah (1994-04-05). "Conservative Publisher Is Leaving Paramount for Penguin". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2020-10-05.
  3. ↑ Pace, Eric (1993-08-11). "Jeremiah Kaplan, Veteran Executive In Publishing, 67". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2020-10-04.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Claire Kelley (October 24, 2012). "After 65 years, Free Press to be absorbed into Simon & Schuster flagship". Melville House Publishing . Retrieved October 24, 2012.
  5. ↑ Bellow, Adam (2005-05-21). "My Escape From The Zabar's Left". New York. Retrieved 2016-03-22.
  6. ↑ "A Publisher is Appointed at the Free Press". The New York Times . April 9, 2001.
  7. ↑ "2003 National Book Award Winner: Nonfiction". Nationalbook.org. 2003.
  8. ↑ "'White Tiger' cub Aravind Adiga roars to Booker Prize win". USA Today . October 15, 2008.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.