Hawthorn Books was an American publishing firm located in New York City that operated from 1952 to 1977. Originally founded as a subsidiary of

Prentice-Hall Prentice Hall was an American major educational publisher owned by Savvas Learning Company. Prentice Hall publishes print and digital content for the 6–12 and higher-education market, and distributes its technical titles through the Safari B ...

, Hawthorn Books went out of business after its publishing assets were acquired by

E. P. Dutton E. P. Dutton was an American Publishing, 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. Creator Edward Payson Dutton ( ...

A Catholic Publishing House is Founded

Hawthorn Books was founded in 1952 as a subsidiary of

by Kenneth S. Giniger, editor in chief Prentice‐Hall's Trade Book Division. With its offices located at 70 Fifth Ave, New York, Hawthorn Books became a leading publisher of Catholic books including such works as the 150‐volume

Twentieth Century Encyclopedia of Catholicism ''The Twentieth Century Encyclopedia of Catholicism'' is a series of 150 volumes examining topics pertaining to Catholicism, many of them originally published in France. It was published in English in the United States by Hawthorn Books from 1958 ...

. The firm announced its plan to publish the English language version of the 150 volume encyclopedia in early 1958, after 40 volumes had already been published in France. Then on April 11, 1958, Hawthorn Books presented to

Pope Pius XII Pope Pius XII ( it, Pio XII), born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli (; 2 March 18769 October 1958), was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death in October 1958. Before his e ...

the first copy of the ''St. Peter's edition'' of a Catholic Bible that also included commentary from Rev. R. Byson; this book was a leather-bound edition, limited to 3000 copies, of a large ''folio'' format Bible. The Pope was so impressed with this new edition of the Bible that he wrote a note in which he stated that, "We warmly welcome this new edition of a Family Bible" for English-speaking Roman Catholics. The company rapidly expanded its catalog and published a total of 73 various titles in 1963 alone. While under the leadership of Kenneth Giniger, it was his intention to have Hawthorn Books publish non-fiction books "of lasting value."

A New Direction

However, some time prior to December 1964, Mr. Giniger resigned as President and a director of Hawthorn Books. He was planning to establishing a new publishing company and was looking to possibly buy an English publishing house. After Giniger had resigned from the firm, Prentice‐Hall sold its subsidiary to Fred Kerner, a former editor of Hawthorn Books and later executive editor of

Fawcett Publications Fawcett Publications was an American publishing company founded in 1919 in Robbinsdale, Minnesota by Wilford Hamilton "Captain Billy" Fawcett (1885–1940). It kicked off with the publication of the bawdy humor magazine ''Captain Billy's Whiz B ...

. The purchase price was reported to be $1.5 million. At the time of the sale to Mr. Kerner, Gerald MacGregor continued to stay on with the firm as Vice President and General Manager. Then, in 1965,

W. Clement Stone William Clement Stone (May 4, 1902 – September 3, 2002) was an American businessman, philanthropist and New Thought self-help book author. Biography Stone was born in Chicago, Illinois on May 4, 1902. His father died in 1905 leaving his family ...

, an influential business man, philanthropist and self-help writer, became Chairman of the Board of Hawthorn Books. Stone intended to use the publishing company as a vehicle to supplement his magazine ''Success Unlimited.''

End of the Company

In 1967 Hawthorn Books was sold to the Clement Stone interests, and again sold in 1977 to W. H. Allen. Hawthorn Books finally closed in 1977, but its publishing assets were bought by

. The imprint Hawthorn/Dutton was then used for several years (as cited by the

Harry Ransom Center The Harry Ransom Center (until 1983 the Humanities Research Center) is an archive, library and museum at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the Americas and Europe for the pur ...

References

{{reflist Book publishing companies based in New York City Defunct book publishing companies of the United States Publishing companies established in 1952