Veen Bosch & Keuning (VBK) is a Dutch publishing group of fiction and nonfiction books that is active also in Belgium. It operates through multiple units. Its headquarters are located in Utrecht.

History

Bosch & Keuning was founded in 1925 when the name of Christian publisher E.J. Bosch J.Bzn was coupled with that of his companion Pieter Keuning. In 1997 the graphical activities were split from Bosch & Keuning, after which the company expanded as a publisher. In 1999 Veen Uitgevers Groep spun off from publishing group

Wolters Kluwer Wolters Kluwer N.V. () is a Dutch information services company. The company is headquartered in Alphen aan den Rijn, Netherlands (Global) and Philadelphia, United States (corporate). Wolters Kluwer in its current form was founded in 1987 with a ...

. Veen referred to L.J. Veen, founder of one of the units, founded in 1887. In the Spring of 2001 Veen and Bosch & Keuning merged into Veen Bosch & Keuning. The Noordelijke Dagblad Combinatie merged in March 2005 with Veen Bosch & Keuning to form NDC, VBK. ThiemeMeulenhoff was also part of the media conglomerate. On 1 June 2007, the NDC Mediagroep was established as the subsidiary of NDC, VDK that would handle interests in periodicals, radio and TV. The group's interest in radio and TV was temporary. In late 2012 the VBK and ThiemeMeulenhoff book publication activities were spun off. As a result, the NDC, VBK became obsolete and VBK, ThiemeMeulenhoff,

NDC Mediagroep Mediahuis Noord, formerly known as NDC Mediagroep, is a Dutch publisher of newspapers, magazines, and websites focused on the three northern provinces of the Netherlands: Drenthe, Friesland and Groningen. It is owned by Mediahuis, a Belgian compan ...

became independent companies again. In december 2017 Veen Bosch & Keuning acquired Bruna.Winkelketen Bruna overgenomen door uitgeefconcern VBK
nrc.nl, 6 december 2017Volkskran
VBK Beheer neemt per direct noodlijdend Bruna over van PostNL en ING, 6 december 2017
/ref> In 2019, it sold Bruna to the

Audax Groep Audax Groep is a Dutch print media and retail company, active also in Belgium. Its headquarters are located in Gilze. Audax was founded in 1958 by Jacques de Leeuw. Jacques de Leeuw led the company until 2017 when he was replaced by his son, Hube ...

, who already owned AKO, Bruna's main competitor.

Subsidiaries

Van Dale Lexicografie

Van Dale Lexicografie publishes the

Van Dale ''Van Dale's Great Dictionary of the Dutch Language'' ( nl, Van Dale Groot woordenboek van de Nederlandse taal ), called ' for short, is the leading dictionary of the Dutch language. The latest edition was published in April 2022. History Van ...

dictionary, the authoritative Dutch-language dictionary. It also publishes bilingual dictionaries for other languages, translated from and to Dutch, and offers language courses and translation services.

Luitingh-Sijthoff

Luitingh-Sijthoff releases

fiction Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places that are imaginary, or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with history, fact, or plausibility. In a traditi ...

and

nonfiction Nonfiction, or non-fiction, is any document or media content that attempts, in good faith, to provide information (and sometimes opinions) grounded only in facts and real life, rather than in imagination. Nonfiction is often associated with be ...

books for the

Dutch language Dutch ( ) is a West Germanic language spoken by about 25 million people as a first language and 5 million as a second language. It is the third most widely spoken Germanic language The Germanic languages are a branch of the Indo-Europea ...

market. The A.W. Sijthoff company was founded by

Albertus Willem Sijthoff Albertus Willem Sijthoff (30 June 1829 – 29 July 1913) was a prominent Dutch publisher from Leiden, Netherlands. Early life Sijthoff was born in 1829 to an established family in Leiden. He was educated at the Stedelijk Gymnasium in Leiden, whi ...

Leiden Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wit ...

in 1851 and Luitingh was established in 1947. Sijthoff, who rose to prominence in the trade of translated books, was opposed to a petition for the Netherlands to become a signatory to the

Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, usually known as the Berne Convention, was an international assembly held in 1886 in the Swiss city of Bern by ten European countries with the goal to agree on a set of l ...

in 1899 because he felt that the international copyright restrictions would stifle the country's publishing industry. The Sijthoff office was attacked by

car bomb A car bomb, bus bomb, lorry bomb, or truck bomb, also known as a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED), is an improvised explosive device designed to be detonated in an automobile or other vehicles. Car bombs can be roughly divided ...

after the ''

Haagsche Courant 250px, The former headquarters of the Haagsche Courant in Rijswijk The ''Haagsche Courant'' operated as an independent newspaper between 1864 and 2005 in The Hague and its suburbs. After it was acquired by the Algemeen Dagblad (AD) it is now pu ...

'', owned at the time by the Sijthoff family, printed a negative article about business activities in the 1980s by a

collection agency Debt collection is the process of pursuing payments of debts owed by individuals or businesses. An organization that specializes in debt collection is known as a collection agency or debt collector. Most collection agencies operate as agents of ...

owned by Dutch criminal Eef Hoos. In 1989, the A.W. Sijthoff and

Luitingh Veen Bosch & Keuning (VBK) is a Dutch publishing group of fiction and nonfiction books that is active also in Belgium. It operates through multiple units. Its headquarters are located in Utrecht. History Bosch & Keuning was founded in 1925 whe ...

publishing companies merged to form Luitingh-Sijthoff, which is headquartered in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

. The books in Luitingh-Sijthoff's catalogue are published under a number of specialized

imprint Imprint or imprinting may refer to: Entertainment * ''Imprint'' (TV series), Canadian television series * "Imprint" (''Masters of Horror''), episode of TV show ''Masters of Horror'' * ''Imprint'' (film), a 2007 independent drama/thriller film ...

s, including Luitingh, Luitingh Fantasy, Mouria, Poema-Pocket, Sijthoff, and Uitgeverij L. Luitingh publishes Dutch versions of popular

English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...

novels by writers that include

Dan Brown Daniel Gerhard Brown (born June 22, 1964) is an American author best known for his Thriller (genre), thriller novels, including the Robert Langdon novels ''Angels & Demons'' (2000), ''The Da Vinci Code'' (2003), ''The Lost Symbol'' (2009), ''In ...

Michael Crichton John Michael Crichton (; October 23, 1942 – November 4, 2008) was an American author and filmmaker. His books have sold over 200 million copies worldwide, and over a dozen have been adapted into films. His literary works heavily feature tech ...

Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. Described as the "King of Horror", a play on his surname and a reference to his high s ...

Dean Koontz Dean Ray Koontz (born July 9, 1945) is an American author. His novels are billed as suspense thrillers, but frequently incorporate elements of horror, fantasy, science fiction, mystery, and satire. Many of his books have appeared on ''The New Y ...

Robert Ludlum Robert Ludlum (May 25, 1927 – March 12, 2001) was an American author of 27 thriller novels, best known as the creator of Jason Bourne from the original '' The Bourne Trilogy'' series. The number of copies of his books in print is estimated b ...

and

Thomas Harris William Thomas Harris III (born 1940/1941) is an American writer, best known for a series of suspense novels about his most famous character, Hannibal Lecter. The majority of his works have been adapted into films and television, the most notab ...

. Since its establishment in 1992, the Luitingh Fantasy imprint publishes authors

Raymond E. Feist Raymond Elias Feist (; born Raymond Elias Gonzales III; December 21, 1945) is an American fantasy fiction author who wrote ''The Riftwar Cycle'', a series of novels and short stories. His books have been translated into multiple languages and ha ...

Terry Goodkind Terry Lee Goodkind (January 11, 1948September 17, 2020) was an American writer. He was known for the epic fantasy series ''The Sword of Truth'' as well as the contemporary suspense novel ''The Law of Nines'' (2009), which has ties to his fantasy ...

Bernhard Hennen Bernhard Hennen (born 1966 in Krefeld) is a German writer of fantasy literature. He is best known internationally for his series ''Die Elfen'' ("The Elves", since 2004), which has been translated into a number of European languages. Career He ...

Robin Hobb Margaret Astrid Lindholm Ogden (born March 5, 1952), known by her pen names Robin Hobb and Megan Lindholm, is an American writer of speculative fiction. As Hobb, she is best known for her fantasy novels set in the ''Realm of the Elderlings'', w ...

Robert Jordan James Oliver Rigney Jr. (October 17, 1948 – September 16, 2007), better known by his pen name Robert Jordan,"Robert Jordan" was the name of the protagonist in the 1940 Hemingway novel ''For Whom the Bell Tolls'', though this is not how the na ...

and

George R.R. Martin George Raymond Richard Martin (born George Raymond Martin; September 20, 1948), also known as GRRM, is an American novelist, screenwriter, television producer and short story writer. He is the author of the series of epic fantasy novels ''A Song ...

. Poema-Pocket is a publisher of

mass market paperback A paperback (softcover, softback) book is one with a thick paper or paperboard cover, and often held together with glue rather than stitches or staples. In contrast, hardcover (hardback) books are bound with cardboard covered with cloth, lea ...

s by popular fiction authors

Patricia Cornwell Patricia Cornwell (born Patricia Carroll Daniels; June 9, 1956) is an American crime writer. She is known for her best-selling novels featuring medical examiner Kay Scarpetta, of which the first was inspired by a series of sensational murders in ...

Jill Mansell Jill Mansell (born 15 June ?) is a British author of romantic comedy. Her books have sold over fourteen million copies worldwide. Background and personal life Mansell grew up in the Cotswolds and attended Sir William Romney's School in Tetbur ...

and

Danielle Steel Danielle Fernandes Dominique Schuelein-Steel (born August 14, 1947) is an American writer, best known for her romance novels. She is the bestselling author alive and the fourth-bestselling fiction author of all time, with over 800 million ...

. Sijthoff publishes thrillers and nonfiction books for casual readers, including '' De zaak Natalee Holloway'' (''The Case of Natalee Holloway'') by

Joran van der Sloot Joran Andreas Petrus van der Sloot (; born 6 August 1987) is a Dutch convicted murderer who killed Stephany Flores Ramírez in Lima, Peru, in 2010. He is also the prime suspect in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway in 2005. After Flores' ...

. Since 2005, Uitgeverij L (Publishing House L) publishes

cartoon A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently animated, in an unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved over time, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or series of images ...

collections and

graphic novel A graphic novel is a long-form, fictional work of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comic scholars and industry ...

s and by

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

authors such as

Christophe Arleston Christophe Arleston (born Christophe Pelinq, 14 August 1963) is a French comics writer and editor. He has also worked as Scotch Arleston. Biography In his early childhood, Christophe Arleston lived in Madagascar, Macon and Paris before returni ...

and

Martin Lodewijk Martinus Spyridon Johannes Lodewijk (born 30 April 1939) is a Dutch comics writer and cartoonist, and advertising adviser. Martin Lodewijk was born in Rotterdam. He dropped out of high school in 1957, and started drawing cartoons, notably of spac ...

as well as

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

artists such as

Osamu Tezuka Osamu Tezuka (, born , ''Tezuka Osamu''; – 9 February 1989) was a Japanese manga artist, cartoonist, and animator. Born in Osaka Prefecture, his prolific output, pioneering techniques, and innovative redefinitions of genres earned him such ...

References

External links

Veen Bosch & Keuning
(Official site) Book publishing companies of the Netherlands Dutch companies established in 1925 Mass media in Utrecht (city) Publishing companies established in 2001 {{DEFAULTSORT:Veen Bosch and Keuning