Hill & Wang is an American

book publishing 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 ...

company focused on

American history The history of the lands that became the United States began with the arrival of the first people in the Americas around 15,000 BC. Numerous indigenous cultures formed, and many saw transformations in the 16th century away from more densely ...

, world history, and politics. It is a division of

Farrar, Straus and Giroux Farrar, Straus and Giroux (FSG) is an American book publishing company, founded in 1946 by Roger Williams Straus Jr. and John C. Farrar. FSG is known for publishing literary books, and its authors have won numerous awards, including Pulitzer ...

. Hill & Wang was founded as an independent publishing house in 1956 by Arthur Wang (1917/18–2005) and Lawrence Hill, who were both working at

A. A. Wyn Aaron A. Wyn (May 22, 1898 – November 3, 1967), born Aaron Weinstein, was an American publisher. Wyn's father was Jacob Weinstein, born in 1864 in Russia. His mother, Rebecca Weinstein, was born in 1865 in Russia. The Weinsteins married in 188 ...

. They bought backlist books from Wyn and started Dramabooks, publishing plays in trade paperback, then a new format. The series included

Jean Cocteau Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (, , ; 5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, filmmaker, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost creatives of the su ...

, Arthur L. Kopit and

Lanford Wilson Lanford Wilson (April 13, 1937March 24, 2011) was an American playwright. His work, as described by ''The New York Times'', was "earthy, realist, greatly admired ndwidely performed."Margalit Fox, Fox, Margalit"Lanford Wilson, Pulitzer Prize-Wi ...

. In 1959, Arthur Wang acquired

Elie Wiesel Elie Wiesel (, born Eliezer Wiesel ''Eliezer Vizel''; September 30, 1928 – July 2, 2016) was a Romanian-born American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Peace Prize, Nobel laureate, and Holocaust survivor. He authored Elie Wiesel b ...

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

memoir, ''

Night Night (also described as night time, unconventionally spelled as "nite") is the period of ambient darkness from sunset to sunrise during each 24-hour day, when the Sun is below the horizon. The exact time when night begins and ends depends o ...

'', which had been turned down by several English-language publishers, publishing it in 1960. They continued to build the Hill & Wang list to include such authors as

Roland Barthes Roland Gérard Barthes (; ; 12 November 1915 – 26 March 1980) was a French literary theorist, essayist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician. His work engaged in the analysis of a variety of sign systems, mainly derived from Western popular ...

Langston Hughes James Mercer Langston Hughes (February 1, 1901 – May 22, 1967) was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist from Joplin, Missouri. One of the earliest innovators of the literary art form called jazz poetry, Hug ...

, and American historians

Stanley Kutler Stanley Ira Kutler (August 10, 1934 – April 7, 2015) was an American historian, best known for his lawsuit against the National Archives and Richard Nixon that won the release of tape recordings Nixon made during his White House years, particul ...

and

William Cronon William Cronon (born September 11, 1954 in New Haven, Connecticut) is an environmental historian and the Frederick Jackson Turner and Vilas Research Professor of History, Geography, and Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madi ...

. In 1971, the two sold Hill & Wang to

,Henry Raymont
"Farrar, Straus Gets Hill & Wang"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', 29 September 1971. Retrieved 8 February 2019. and the imprint continues to be recognized for its high quality nonfiction. More recently, it has published authors such as Cass Sunstein, Philip Gura,

John Allen Paulos John Allen Paulos (born July 4, 1945) is an American professor of mathematics at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He has gained fame as a writer and speaker on mathematics and the importance of mathematical literacy. Paulos write ...

Melvyn Leffler Melvyn Paul Leffler (born May 31, 1945, in Brooklyn, New York) is an American historian and educator, currently Edward Stettinius Professor of History at the University of Virginia. He is the winner of numerous awards, including the Bancroft Prize ...

, Thomas Bender,

William Poundstone William Poundstone is an American author, columnist, and skeptic. He has written a number of books including the ''Big Secrets'' series and a biography of Carl Sagan. Early life and education Poundstone attended MIT and studied physics. Personal ...

Woody Holton Abner Linwood Holton III, known as Woody Holton, is an American professor who is the McCausland Professor of History at the University of South Carolina. Early life Abner Linwood Holton III is the son of former Virginia Governor Linwood Holton. ...

, and

Eric Rauchway Eric Rauchway (born 1969 or 1970) is an American historian and professor at the University of California, Davis. He received his B.A. from Cornell in 1991, and his Ph.D. from Stanford in 1996. Rauchway's scholarship focuses on modern US political, ...

. The imprint also launched a graphic line, "Novel Graphics," when it published a graphic adaptation of the ''

9/11 Commission Report ''The 9/11 Commission Report'' (officially the ''Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States)'' is the official report into the events leading up to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. It was prepa ...

'' by

Sid Jacobson Sidney Jacobson (October 20, 1929 – July 23, 2022) was an American writer who worked in the fields of children's comic books, popular music, fiction, biography, and non-fiction comics. He was managing editor and editor in chief for Harvey Com ...

and

Ernie Colón Ernesto Colón SierraColón in English translation of Via (July 13, 1931 – August 8, 2019) was a stateside Puerto Rican comics artist, known for his wide-ranging career illustrating children's, superhero, and horror comics, as well as mains ...

. It has since published several graphic biographies and works of

graphic journalism Comics journalism is a form of journalism that covers news or nonfiction events using the framework of comics, a combination of words and drawn images. Typically, sources are actual people featured in each story, and word balloons are actual quo ...

, and a graphic adaptation of the

United States Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the Supremacy Clause, supreme law of the United States, United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven ar ...

Notable authors

, Numerous works in translation. * Elizabeth A. Fenn, '' Encounters at the Heart of the World'', Hill & Wang, 2014
Winner of Pulitzer Prize for History
* Philip Gura, ''American Transcendentalism'' (Hill & Wang, 2007). Nominee for the

National Book Critics Circle Award The National Book Critics Circle Awards are a set of annual American literary awards by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote "the finest books and reviews published in English".Woody Holton Abner Linwood Holton III, known as Woody Holton, is an American professor who is the McCausland Professor of History at the University of South Carolina. Early life Abner Linwood Holton III is the son of former Virginia Governor Linwood Holton. ...

, ''Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution'' (Hill & Wang, 2007). Finalist for 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 Nat ...

Jack London John Griffith Chaney (January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916), better known as Jack London, was an American novelist, journalist and activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors to ...

, ''

The Iron Heel ''The Iron Heel'' is a political novel in the form of science fiction by American writer Jack London, first published in 1908.Kershaw, Alex. ''Jack London: A Life''. London: HarperCollins, 1997: 164. Background The main premise of the book i ...

'' (Hill & Wang, 1957, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969). *

William Pfaff William Pfaff (December 29, 1928 – April 30, 2015) was an American author, op-ed columnist for the ''International Herald Tribune'' and frequent contributor to ''The New York Review of Books''. Early life Pfaff was born in Council Bluffs, Iowa ...

, ''Barbarian Sentiments: How the American Century Ends'' (Hill & Wang, 1989). Finalist for the

, ''

'' (Hill & Wang, 1960, 2006).

References

External links

Hill & Wang

Hill & Wang's current books

Hill & Wang archived site

Farrar, Straus and Giroux
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hill and Wang Book publishing companies based in New York City Publishing companies established in 1956 1971 mergers and acquisitions 1956 establishments in New York City