 | |
| Parent company | Random House, Inc. |
|---|---|
| Status | Defunct (2013) |
| Founded | 1944 |
| Successor | Penguin Random House Canada |
| Country of origin | Canada |
| Distribution | Canada |
| Publication types | Books |
Random House of Canada was the Canadian distributor for Random House, Inc. from 1944 until 2013. On July 1, 2013, it amalgamated with Penguin Canada to become Penguin Random House Canada.
Random House of Canada was established in 1944 as the Canadian distributor of Random House Books. In 1986, Random House launched its Canadian publishing program. In 1998, Random House (USA) merged with another major publishing company, Bantam Doubleday Dell. Due to this international merger, both companies' Canadian branches merged as well, publishing international titles in this country as well as maintaining their Canadian publishing program. [1] In 2012, Random House of Canada became the sole owner of fellow Canadian publishing company McClelland & Stewart, having purchased the 75% it didn't already own from the University of Toronto. [2] In 2013, Random House's parent company, Bertelsmann, entered into a joint venture with Pearson PLC (the parent company of the Penguin Group) to form a new trade publishing company called Penguin Random House. [3] As part of this venture Random House of Canada and Penguin Canada were amalgamated as Penguin Random House Canada. Random House of Canada, as a legal entity, is defunct.
In 2013, when Random House of Canada become defunct, it published under several imprints, including:
Anchor Canada was created in 2001. It publishes trade paperback editions of many of Doubleday Canada's titles. In 2002, Anchor Canada published its first original trade paperback titled The Notebooks: Interviews and New Fiction from Contemporary Writers.
Bond Street Books was launched in 2006. Bond Street Books publishes international fiction and non-fiction.
Doubleday Canada publishes Canadian and international fiction and non-fiction titles from both new and established writers.
Knopf Canada was established in 1991 as an editorially independent Canadian branch of Alfred A. Knopf. The founding editor was Louise Dennys. Dennys was already the publisher of many major Canadian books, through her work at the Toronto publishing house Lester & Orpen Dennys. [4] In 1996, Knopf Canada established a program called "The New Face of Fiction". Each year editors choose between 1 and 4 books and promote them through the campaign in order to bring some of Canada's most talented new authors to national and international attention. [5]
The Random House Canada imprint published works by Canadian and international authors starting in 1986. [6]
Seal Books was founded in 1977, stemming from a partnership between Bantam Books (an American-based company) and McClelland & Stewart. This imprint specializes in reprints of major fiction hardcover titles. However, Seal has always published original books; it is just not the imprint's main endeavor. In the 1980s, there was a Seal Books First Novel Award. [7] [8] Many Seal Books were originally published as Doubleday hardcovers. When Seal Books merged with Random House of Canada, they began publishing mass-market titles from Random House of Canada and Knopf Canada as well.
Vintage Canada was established in 1993. It takes its name from the New York–based publishing house, Vintage Books, which was formed in 1954 by Alfred A. Knopf. Vintage Canada publishes paperback editions, choosing primarily from titles originally published by Knopf Canada and Random House Canada. They also publish new books and modern classics originally published elsewhere, as well as some "Vintage Originals". [9]
Speakers House Canada was launched in 2008 as a joint business and marketing venture between Random House of Canada and McClelland & Stewart. It was meant to serve as a vehicle for showcasing authors who were also in-demand speakers. [10] [11]
In October 2010, Random House of Canada introduced the "Conversation Starters" application for Apple's iPhone and iPad. [12]
In February 2011, Random House of Canada announced a partnership with OverDrive, a digital distributor of downloadable e-books. Through this the distribution agreement, Canadian libraries, schools and colleges were able to access Random House titles through OverDrive's e-book catalog. [13]
In 2012, the company launched the online magazine Hazlitt, which features both fiction and non-fiction writing. [14]
Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. It has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by the Germany-based media conglomerate Bertelsmann.
A paperback book is one with a thick paper or paperboard cover, and often held together with glue rather than stitches or staples. In contrast, hardback (hardcover) books are bound with cardboard covered with cloth, leather, paper, or plastic.
Doubleday is an American publishing company. It was founded as the Doubleday & McClure Company in 1897. By 1947, it was the largest book publisher in the United States. It published the work of mostly U.S. authors under a number of imprints and distributed them through its own stores.
Rudy Henry Wiebe is a Canadian author and professor emeritus in the department of English at the University of Alberta since 1992. Rudy Wiebe was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in the year 2000.
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, who continue to publish Everyman Paperbacks.
McClelland & Stewart Limited is a Canadian publishing company. It is owned by Penguin Random House of Canada, a branch of Penguin Random House, the international book publishing division of German media giant Bertelsmann.
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.
Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. is an American publishing house that was founded by Blanche Knopf and Alfred A. Knopf Sr. in 1915. Blanche and Alfred traveled abroad regularly and were known for publishing European, Asian, and Latin American writers in addition to leading American literary trends. It was acquired by Random House in 1960, and is now part of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group division of Penguin Random House which is owned by the German conglomerate Bertelsmann.
E. P. Dutton was an American book publishing company. It was founded as a book retailer in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1852 by Edward Payson Dutton. Since 1986, it has been an imprint of Penguin Group.
Bantam Books is an American publishing house owned entirely by parent company Random House, a subsidiary of Penguin Random House; it is an imprint of the Random House Publishing Group. It was formed in 1945 by Walter B. Pitkin Jr., Sidney B. Kramer, and Ian and Betty Ballantine, with funding from Grosset & Dunlap and Curtis Publishing Company. It has since been purchased several times by companies including National General, Carl Lindner's American Financial and, most recently, Bertelsmann, which in 1986 purchased what had grown to become the Bantam Doubleday Dell publishing group. Bertelsmann purchased Random House in 1998, and in 1999 merged the Bantam and Dell imprints to become the Bantam Dell publishing imprint. In 2010, the Bantam Dell division was consolidated with Ballantine Books to form the Ballantine Bantam Dell group within Random House. By no later than February 2015, Bantam Books had re-emerged as a stand-alone imprint within Random House; as of 2023, it continues to publish as the Bantam imprint, again grouped in a renamed Ballantine division within Random House.
Vintage Books is a trade paperback publishing imprint of Penguin Random House originally established by Alfred A. Knopf in 1954. The company was acquired by Random House in April 1960, and a British division was set up in 1990. After Random House merged with Bantam Doubleday Dell, Doubleday's Anchor Books trade paperback line was added to the same division as Vintage. Following Random House's merger with Penguin, Vintage UK was transferred to Penguin UK.
Dell Publishing Company, Inc. is an American publisher of books, magazines and comic books, that was founded in 1921 by George T. Delacorte Jr. with $10,000, two employees and one magazine title, I Confess, and soon began turning out dozens of pulp magazines, which included penny-a-word detective stories, articles about films, and romance books.
The Crown Publishing Group is a subsidiary of Penguin Random House that publishes across several fiction and non-fiction categories. Originally founded in 1933 as a remaindered books wholesaler called Outlet Book Company, the firm expanded into publishing original content in 1936 under the Crown name, and was acquired by Random House in 1988. Under Random House's ownership, the Crown Publishing Group was operated as an independent division until 2018, when it was merged with the rest of Random House's adult programs.
Transworld is a British publishing house in Ealing, London that is a division of Penguin Random House, one of the world's largest mass media groups. It was established in 1950 as the British division of American company Bantam Books. It publishes fiction and nonfiction titles by various best-selling authors including Val Wood under several different imprints. Hardbacks are published under the Doubleday imprint, whereas paperbacks are published under the Black Swan or Corgi imprint. The Bantam Press imprint publishes both Hardbacks and Prestige softcovers.
Vintage Classics is a paperback publisher of contemporary fiction and non-fiction. It is part of the Vintage imprint, which is itself a part of Random House Publishers. The famous American publisher Alfred A. Knopf (1892–1984) founded Vintage Books in the United States in 1954 as a paperback home for the authors published by his company. Vintage was launched in the United Kingdom in 1990 and works independently from the American imprint although both are part of the international publishing group, Random House. Vintage in the UK is run by a small team of people working in the Random House offices in Pimlico in London.
Doubleday Canada is an imprint of the publishing company Penguin Random House Canada. The company used to be known as Forboys. It was incorporated in 1936, and since 1945 it has been known as Doubleday Canada Limited. In 1986 parent company Doubleday was acquired by Bertelsmann. Due to Canadian policy at the time, majority control of Doubleday Canada was sold to Anna Porter. Porter sold her shares to Winnipeg businessman Abraham Simkin in 1991. Random House of Canada, which has just been acquired by Bertelsmann, acquired Doubleday Canada in 1999. In 2013, Random House of Canada and Penguin Canada merged to form Penguin Random House Canada.
Penguin Random House LLC is an Anglo-American multinational conglomerate publishing company formed on July 1, 2013, with the merger of Penguin Books and Random House. Penguin Books was originally founded in 1935 and Random House was founded in 1927. It has more than 300 publishing imprints. Along with Simon & Schuster, Hachette, HarperCollins and Macmillan Publishers, Penguin Random House is considered one of the 'Big Five' English language publishers.
Bear is a novel by Canadian author Marian Engel, published in 1976. It won the Governor General's Literary Award the same year. It is Engel's fifth novel, and her most famous. The story tells of a lonely archivist sent to work in northern Ontario, where she enters into a sexual relationship with a bear. The Canadian Encyclopedia calls the book "the most controversial novel ever written in Canada".
