Pergamon Press was an

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-based publishing house, founded by

Paul Rosbaud Paul Rosbaud (18 November 1896 – 28 January 1963), was a metallurgist and scientific adviser for Springer Verlag in Germany before and during World War II. He continued in science publishing after the war with Pergamon Press in Oxford, Engl ...

and

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, that published scientific and medical books and journals. Originally called Butterworth-Springer, it is now an

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Elsevier Elsevier () is a Dutch academic publishing company specializing in scientific, technical, and medical content. Its products include journals such as ''The Lancet'', ''Cell'', the ScienceDirect collection of electronic journals, '' Trends'', th ...

History

The core company, Butterworth-Springer, started in 1948 to bring the "

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know-how and techniques of aggressive publishing in science"Joe Haines (1988) ''Maxwell'', Houghton Mifflin, p. 137. to

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was the man with the knowledge. When Maxwell acquired the company in 1951, Rosbaud held a one-quarter share. They changed the house name to Pergamon Press, using a

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that was a reproduction of a Greek coin from

Pergamon Pergamon or Pergamum ( or ; grc-gre, Πέργαμον), also referred to by its modern Greek form Pergamos (), was a rich and powerful ancient Greece, ancient Greek city in Mysia. It is located from the modern coastline of the Aegean Sea on a ...

. Maxwell and Rosbaud worked together growing the company until May 1956, when, according to Joe Haines, Rosbaud was sacked. When Pergamon Press started it had only six serials and two books. Initially the company headquarters was in

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. In 1959, the company moved into

Headington Hill Hall Headington Hill Hall stands on Headington Hill in the east of Oxford, England. It was built in 1824 for the Morrell family, who remained in residence for 114 years. It became the home to Pergamon Press and to media tycoon Robert Maxwell. It cur ...

, a country home rented from the city of Oxford. In 1960, Brian Cox joined Pergamon Press as subscription manager. After the founders' deaths, Cox has become the primary witness to the phenomenal rise of Pergamon Press in the Science, Technology, and Medicine (STM) sector of publishing. The 59 Pergamon

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s in 1960 became 418 journals in 1992. Cox recalls that in the process some 700 were launched, many transmogrifying rather than ceasing. Cox says "The secret of Pergamon's success was to publish a large number of journals, so that the established titles could support the new ones during their formative years".Brian Cox (1998) "The Pergamon phenomenon 1951–1991: a memoir of the Maxwell years", ''Logos: forum of the world book community'' 9,3 135–40 In 1962, Pergamon Press started the series called ''The Commonwealth and International Library of Sciences, Technology, Engineering, and Liberal Studies''. By 1970, this series had 1000 titles. Brian Cox says that in all, Pergamon published 7,000 monographs for various authors. In 1964, Pergamon Press became a

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. With its growth and

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performance, the company was a recipient of one of the

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in 1966. That year saw construction of a new office block and warehouse at Headington Hill. Pergamon ventured to produce an ''Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Physics'', in nine volumes and four supplements in the decade from 1961. In 1969, Maxwell lost control of Pergamon and was ejected from the board. An inquiry by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) under the Takeover Code of the time reported in mid-1971: "We regret having to conclude that, notwithstanding Mr Maxwell's acknowledged abilities and energy, he is not in our opinion a person who can be relied on to exercise proper stewardship of a publicly quoted company." It was found that Maxwell had contrived to maximise Pergamon's share price through transactions between his private family companies. Maxwell reacquired Pergamon in 1974 after borrowing funds."Robert Maxwell: Overview"
keputa.net Pergamon continued with ''International Encyclopedias'' in biotechnology, chemistry, education, engineering, entomology, linguistics, materials science, and pharmacology and toxicology. The education volume won the

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from the

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in 1986 as the best reference work of the year. Pergamon also has offices in

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, in the United States. Pergamon is the publisher of several works of the Club of Rome, such as ''Beyond the Age of Waste'', ''Energy, the Countdown'', ''No Limits to Learning'', ''Towards more Effective Societies'', ''Dialogue of Wealth and Welfare'' and ''Microelectronics and Society''.

Sale to Elsevier

Maxwell sold Pergamon Press to

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giant Elsevier in March 1991 for £440 million; the funds were used to repay the large debt taken on by Maxwell in taking control of ''

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''.Tom Bower (1991) ''Maxwell the outsider'', Viking Penguin, p. 436. Maxwell retained Pergamon's US books (which became part of sister company Macmillan Inc.), the ''Chess'' and ''Bridge'' magazines, and some smaller properties. The imprint "Pergamon Press" continues to be used to identify journals now published by Elsevier.

References

{{authority control Book publishing companies of the United Kingdom Elsevier imprints Publishing companies established in 1948 Robert Maxwell

History

Sale to Elsevier

See also

References