G.P. Putnam's Sons

G. P. Putnam's Sons was a major United States book publisher based in New York City, New York. Since 1996, it has been an imprint of the Penguin Group.

History


The company began as Wiley & Putnam with the 1838 partnership between George Palmer Putnam and John Wiley, who had founded his own company in 1807.

In 1841, Putnam went to London, UK where he set up a branch office, the first American company ever to do so. In 1848, he returned to New York, where he dissolved the partnership with John Wiley and established G. Putnam Broadway, publishing a variety of works including quality illustrated books. Wiley began John Wiley and Sons, which is still an independent publisher to the present day.

In 1853, G. P. Putnam & Co. started Putnam’s Magazine with Charles Frederick Briggs as its editor.

On George Palmer Putnam’s death in 1872 his sons George H., John and Irving inherited the business and the firm's name was changed to G. P. Putnam's Sons. Son George H. Putnam became president of the firm, a position he held for the next fifty-two years.

In 1874, the company established its own book printing and manufacturing office, set up by John Putnam and operating initially out of newly leased premises at 182 Fifth Avenue. This printing side of the business later became a separate division called the Knickerbocker Press, and was relocated in 1889 to the Knickerbocker Press Building, built specifically for the press in New Rochelle, New York.

On the death of George H. Putnam in 1930, the various Putnam heirs voted to merge the firm with Minton, Balch & Co. who became the majority stockholders. Putnam's son, George P. Putnam (1887–1950), was married to aviator Amelia Earhart. Melville Minton, the partner and sales manager of Minton Balch & Co. became acting president and majority stockholder of the firm, until his death in 1956. In 1936, Putnam acquired the publisher Coward-McCann (later Coward, McCann & Geoghegan), and ran it as an imprint into the 1980s. Upon Melville Minton's death, his son Walter J. Minton took command of Putnam's and brought the company to its lofty heights as one of the country's most respected and controversial publishing houses.

In 1965 G.P. Putnam's Sons acquired Berkley Books, a mass market paperback publishing house. Ten years later, Putnam Publishing Group and Berkley Publishing Group were sold to MCA, Inc. In 1982, Putnam acquired the respected children's book publisher, Grosset & Dunlap.

In 1996 the company was bought by the Penguin Group, a division of the British publishing conglomerate, Pearson PLC. The new owners merged Putnam/Berkley with Penguin USA to form Penguin Putnam Inc., who uses the name to publish the G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers.