Princeton University Press is an independent

publisher Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

with close connections to Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and

society A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. So ...

at large. The press was founded by Whitney Darrow, with the financial support of Charles Scribner, as a

printing press A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in which the ...

to serve the Princeton community in 1905. Its distinctive building was constructed in 1911 on William Street in Princeton. Its first book was a new 1912 edition of John Witherspoon's ''Lectures on Moral Philosophy.''

History

Princeton University Press was founded in 1905 by a recent Princeton graduate, Whitney Darrow, with financial support from another Princetonian,

Charles Scribner II Charles Scribner II (October 18, 1854 – April 19, 1930) was the president of Charles Scribner's Sons and a trustee at Skidmore College. Early life He was born in New York City on October 18, 1854. He was the son of Emma Elizabeth Blair (1827–1 ...

. Darrow and Scribner purchased the equipment and assumed the operations of two already existing local publishers, that of the ''Princeton Alumni Weekly'' and the Princeton Press. The new press printed both local newspapers, university documents, '' The Daily Princetonian'', and later added book publishing to its activities. Beginning as a small, for-profit printer, Princeton University Press was reincorporated as a nonprofit in 1910. Since 1911, the press has been headquartered in a purpose-built gothic-style building designed by

Ernest Flagg Ernest Flagg (February 6, 1857 – April 10, 1947) was an American architect in the Beaux-Arts style. He was also an advocate for urban reform and architecture's social responsibility. Early life and education Flagg was born in Brooklyn, New ...

. The design of press’s building, which was named the Scribner Building in 1965, was inspired by the Plantin-Moretus Museum, a printing museum in Antwerp, Belgium. Princeton University Press established a European office, in Woodstock, England, north of Oxford, in 1999, and opened an additional office, in Beijing, in early 2017.

Pulitzers and other major awards

Six books from Princeton University Press have won

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made ...

s: *'' Russia Leaves the War'' by George F. Kennan (1957) *''Banks and Politics in America from the Revolution to the Civil War'' by Bray Hammond (1958) *''Between War and Peace'' by Herbert Feis (1961) *''Washington: Village and Capital'' by Constance McLaughlin Green (1963) *'' The Greenback Era'' by Irwin Unger (1965) *''Machiavelli in Hell'' by Sebastian de Grazia (1989) Books from Princeton University Press have also been awarded the

Bancroft Prize The Bancroft Prize is awarded each year by the trustees of Columbia University for books about diplomacy or the history of the Americas. It was established in 1948, with a bequest from Frederic Bancroft, in his memory and that of his brother, ...

, the Nautilus Book Award, and the

National Book Award The National Book Awards are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. The Na ...

Papers projects

Multi-volume

historical document Historical documents are original documents that contain important historical information about a person, place, or event and can thus serve as primary sources as important ingredients of the historical methodology. Significant historical documen ...

s projects undertaken by the press include: * '' The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein'' * ''The Writings of Henry D. Thoreau'' * ''The Papers of

Woodrow Wilson Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...

'' (sixty-nine volumes) * '' The Papers of Thomas Jefferson'' * '' Kierkegaard's Writings'' ''The Papers of Woodrow Wilson'' has been called "one of the great editorial achievements in all history."

Bollingen Series

Princeton University Press's Bollingen Series had its beginnings in the

Bollingen Foundation The Bollingen Foundation was an educational foundation set up along the lines of a university press in 1945. It was named after Bollingen Tower, Carl Jung's country home in Bollingen, Switzerland. Funding was provided by Paul Mellon and his wi ...

, a 1943 project of

Paul Mellon Paul Mellon (June 11, 1907 – February 1, 1999) was an American philanthropist and an owner/breeder of thoroughbred racehorses. He is one of only five people ever designated an "Exemplar of Racing" by the National Museum of Racing and Hall ...

's Old Dominion Foundation. From 1945, the foundation had independent status, publishing and providing fellowships and grants in several areas of study, including

archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landsc ...

poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek '' poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings ...

, and

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwee ...

. The Bollingen Series was given to the university in 1969.

Other series

Sciences

* Annals of Mathematics Studies ( Alice Chang, Phillip A. Griffiths,

Assaf Naor Assaf Naor (born May 7, 1975) is an Israeli American and Czech mathematician, computer scientist, and a professor of mathematics at Princeton University. Academic career Naor earned a baccalaureate from Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1996 ...

, editors; Lillian Pierce, associate editor) * Princeton Series in Applied Mathematics ( Ingrid Daubechies, Weinan E, Jan Karel Lenstra, Endre Süli, editors) * Princeton Series in Astrophysics (David N. Spergel, editor) * Princeton Series in Complexity ( Simon A. Levin and Steven H. Strogatz, editors) * Princeton Series in Evolutionary Biology (H. Allen Orr, editor) * Princeton Series in International Economics ( Gene M. Grossman, editor) * Princeton Science Library

Humanities

* Princeton Modern Greek StudiesSeeger Center for Hellenic Studies – Publications
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Selected titles

*''The Whites of Their Eyes: The Tea Party's Revolution and the Battle over American History'', by Jill Lepore (2010) *'' The Meaning of Relativity'' by

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...

(1922) *'' Atomic Energy for Military Purposes'' by

Henry DeWolf Smyth Henry DeWolf "Harry" Smyth (; May 1, 1898September 11, 1986) was an American physicist, diplomat, and bureaucrat. He played a number of key roles in the early development of nuclear energy, as a participant in the Manhattan Project, a member ...

(1945) *'' How to Solve It'' by George Polya (1945) *'' The Open Society and Its Enemies'' by

Karl Popper Sir Karl Raimund Popper (28 July 1902 – 17 September 1994) was an Austrian-British philosopher, academic An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or ...

(1945) *''

The Hero With a Thousand Faces ''The Hero with a Thousand Faces'' (first published in 1949) is a work of comparative mythology by Joseph Campbell, in which the author discusses his theory of the mythological structure of the journey of the archetypal hero found in world myth ...

'' by

Joseph Campbell Joseph John Campbell (March 26, 1904 – October 30, 1987) was an American writer. He was a professor of literature at Sarah Lawrence College who worked in comparative mythology and comparative religion. His work covers many aspects of th ...

(1949) *The Wilhelm/Baynes translation of the ''

I Ching The ''I Ching'' or ''Yi Jing'' (, ), usually translated ''Book of Changes'' or ''Classic of Changes'', is an ancient Chinese divination text that is among the oldest of the Chinese classics. Originally a divination manual in the Western Zho ...

,'' Bollingen Series XIX. First

copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, educatio ...

1950, 27th printing 1997. *''

Anatomy of Criticism ''Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays'' (Princeton University Press, 1957) is a book by Canadian literary critic and theorist Northrop Frye that attempts to formulate an overall view of the scope, theory, principles, and techniques of literary cr ...

'' by

Northrop Frye Herman Northrop Frye (July 14, 1912 – January 23, 1991) was a Canadian literary critic and literary theorist, considered one of the most influential of the 20th century. Frye gained international fame with his first book, '' Fearful Symmet ...

(1957) *'' Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature'' by

Richard Rorty Richard McKay Rorty (October 4, 1931 – June 8, 2007) was an American philosopher. Educated at the University of Chicago and Yale University, he had strong interests and training in both the history of philosophy and in contemporary analytic ph ...

(1979) *'' QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter'' by

Richard Feynman Richard Phillips Feynman (; May 11, 1918 – February 15, 1988) was an American theoretical physicist, known for his work in the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics, the physics of the superflu ...

(1985) *'' The Great Contraction 1929–1933 ''by

Milton Friedman Milton Friedman (; July 31, 1912 – November 16, 2006) was an American economist and statistician who received the 1976 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his research on consumption analysis, monetary history and theory and the co ...

and Anna Jacobson Schwartz (1963) with a new Introduction by Peter L. Bernstein (2008) *''Military Power: Explaining Victory and Defeat in Modern Battle'' by Stephen Biddle (2004) *'' Islamic Revival in British India: Deoband, 1860-1900 by Barbara D. Metcalf (1982)

References

External links

*
Princeton University Press: Albert Einstein Web Page

{{Authority control Princeton University publications University presses of the United States Publishing companies established in 1905 Book publishing companies based in New Jersey 1905 establishments in New Jersey Historic district contributing properties in Mercer County, New Jersey