Dodd, Mead And Company

Dodd, Mead and Company was one of the pioneer publishing houses of the United States, based in New York City. Under several names, the firm operated from 1839 until 1990.

History

Origins

In 1839, Moses Woodruff Dodd (1813–1899) and John S. Taylor, at that time a leading publisher in New York, formed the company of Taylor and Dodd as a publisher of religious books. In 1840, Dodd bought out Taylor and renamed the company as M.W. Dodd. Frank Howard Dodd (1844–1916) joined his father in business in 1859 and became increasingly involved in the publishing company's operation.

With the retirement of founder Moses Dodd in 1870, control passed to his son Frank Howard Dodd, who joined in partnership with his cousin Edward S. Mead (1847–1894), and the company was reorganized as Dodd and Mead. In 1876, Bleecker Van Wagenen became a member of the firm and the name was changed to Dodd, Mead and Company. Tebbel, John, ''Between Covers: The Rise and Transformation of Book Publishing in America''. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987, , p. 111
Dodd, Mead and Company, Papers, 1836–1939
American Antiquarian Society (retrieved January 22, 2011).

Growth and prominence

The company was well known for the quality of its publications, including many books on American history and contemporary literature. As a bookseller, the firm was a dealer and leading authority in rare books.

As head of Dodd, Mead and Company, Frank Dodd established '' The Bookman'' in 1895, and ''The New International Encyclopedia'' in 1902. He was president of the American Publishers Association for a number of years. The firm built the Dodd Mead Building (1910) at the corner of Fourth Avenue and Thirtieth Street, and the 11-story building was heralded as creating a new trade center in New York City.

Dodd, Mead and Company published the work of new poets including Robert W. Service, Bliss Carman and Paul Laurence Dunbar.

When Frank Dodd died in 1916, the partnership was dissolved and the business was incorporated. Dodd's only son, Edward H. Dodd, succeeded him as president.

In 1922 Dodd, Mead and Company began a period of great expansion with the purchase of the American branch of John Lane Company, publisher of Anatole France, William John Locke and many prominent poets. Other authors included Aubrey Beardsley, Max Beerbohm, Rupert Brooke, G. K. Chesterton, Agatha Christie, Theodore Dreiser, and Stephen Leacock. In 1924 Dodd purchased Moffat, Yard & Co., adding books by William James, Sigmund Freud, and Carl Jung to their list. Dodd, Mead's '' New International Encyclopedia'' was sold in 1931 to Funk & Wagnalls. In 1934, Dodd, Mead acquired Duffield and Green, publisher of Elinor Glyn, Emma Gelders Sterne, and General Krasnov; and the Sears Publishing Company. Dodd, Mead acquired the complete works of George Bernard Shaw.

Acquisition and end

In December 1981, Dodd, Mead and Company became a subsidiary of Thomas Nelson Inc. One of the last family-owned publishers in the United States, it was purchased for $4 million. The company was sold again in 1986 to Gamut Publishing Company, a partnership founded by Jon B. Harden and Lynne A. Lumsden for the purpose of acquiring book publishing companies, for $4.7 million. To retire some of its debt, the owners of the 149-year-old publishing house sold its greatest assets – the U.S. rights to books by Agatha Christie and Max Brand — to the Putnam Berkley Group in 1988.

The business operations of Dodd, Mead and Company were suspended in March 1989 pending the outcome of arbitration with its fulfillment house, Metro Services, Inc. By the end of 1990 the company ceased publications.

Authors

Authors' names are followed by their known dates of association with Dodd, Mead and Company.

*Edward Abbey
* Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr (1885–1911)
* Caroline French Benton (1901, '' Gala-day luncheons'')
* N. J. Berrill (1951–1966)
* Don Blanding (1928–1955)
* Max Brand
* Anna Alice Chapin (September 1912)
*Agatha Christie (1922–1976)
*Winston Churchill
* Paul Laurence Dunbar (1896–1914)
* Norman A. Fox (1911–1960)
* Ernest Holmes (1953 publication of '' The Science of Mind'')
* W. W. Jacobs
* Charles Kingsley
* Ross Macdonald
* Addison Mizner (1932)
* Ruth Bryan Owen (1935–1942)
* John Cowper Powys (1920–1925)
* Arthur Ransome (1907, published his '' Bohemia in London'')
*Vincent Scuro (1974–1986)
* Robert W. Service (1911–1954)
*Anthony Trollope
* Bettina Riddle von Hutten

Book series

* Ajax Series
* American Political Leaders
* Astor Library
* Ebony LibraryEbony Library
seriesofseries.com. Retrieved November 19, 2019.
* Great Illustrated Classics
* International Classics
* Modern American Writers
* Quill Library
* Red Badge Detective

See also

* Books in the United States

Notes

References

*

Further reading

* Edward H. Dodd, Jr., ''The First Hundred Years A History Of The House Of Dodd, Mead 1839–1939'', New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1939.

External links

Dodd, Mead mss., 1855–1992, Finding Aid
Lilly Library, Indiana University

Dodd, Mead & Company Archive 1896–1974 Finding Aid
University of Delaware Library Special Collections

Dodd, Mead & Company Records
a
New-York Historical Society Library

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dodd, Mead and Co.
Publishing companies established in 1839
Publishing companies disestablished in 1990
Defunct companies based in New York (state)
Defunct book publishing companies of the United States
1839 establishments in New York (state)
1990 disestablishments in New York (state)