Charles Scribner's Sons
Encyclopedia
Charles Scribner's Sons, or simply Scribner, is an American publisher based in New York City
, known for publishing a number of American authors including Ernest Hemingway
, F. Scott Fitzgerald
, Kurt Vonnegut
, Stephen King
, Robert A. Heinlein
, Thomas Wolfe
, George Santayana
, John Clellon Holmes
, and Edith Wharton
.
The firm published Scribner's Magazine
for many years. More recently, several Scribner titles and authors have garnered Pulitzer Prizes, National Book Awards and other merits. In 1978 the company merged with Atheneum
and became The Scribner Book Companies, which in turn was merged into Macmillan
in 1984. Simon & Schuster
bought Macmillan in 1994. By this point only the trade book and reference book operations still bore the original family name. The former imprint, now simply "Scribner," was retained by Simon & Schuster, while the reference division has been owned by Gale
since 1999.
and Isaac D. Baker as "Baker & Scribner". After Baker's death Scribner bought the remainder of the company and renamed it the "Charles Scribner Company." In 1865 the company made its first venture into magazine publishing with Hours at Home.
In 1870 the Scribners organized a new firm, Scribner and Company, to publish a magazine entitled Scribner’s Monthly
. After the death of Charles Scribner I in 1871, his son John Blair Scribner
took over as president of the company. His other sons Charles Scribner II
and Arthur Hawley Scribner
would also join the firm, in 1875 and 1884, and later also served as presidents. When the other partners in the venture sold their stake to the family, the company was renamed Charles Scribner's Sons.
The company launched a well-known magazine for children, St. Nicholas Magazine
, in 1873 with Mary Mapes Dodge
as editor and Frank R. Stockton
as assistant editor. The Scribner family sold this company to outside investors in 1881 and Scribner’s Monthly was renamed the Century Magazine, with the Scribners enjoined from publishing any magazine for a period of five years. In 1886, at the expiration of this term, Scribner's Magazine
was launched.
The firm's headquarters were in the Scribner Building
, built in 1893, on lower Fifth Avenue at 21st Street, and later in the Charles Scribner's Sons Building
, on Fifth Avenue in midtown. Both buildings were designed by Ernest Flagg
in a Beaux Arts style.
The publisher is owned by the CBS Corporation
.
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, known for publishing a number of American authors including Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His economic and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the...
, F. Scott Fitzgerald
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was an American author of novels and short stories, whose works are the paradigm writings of the Jazz Age, a term he coined himself. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. Fitzgerald is considered a member of the "Lost...
, Kurt Vonnegut
Kurt Vonnegut
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. was a 20th century American writer. His works such as Cat's Cradle , Slaughterhouse-Five and Breakfast of Champions blend satire, gallows humor and science fiction. He was known for his humanist beliefs and was honorary president of the American Humanist Association.-Early...
, Stephen King
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books...
, Robert A. Heinlein
Robert A. Heinlein
Robert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction writer. Often called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was one of the most influential and controversial authors of the genre. He set a standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's standards of...
, Thomas Wolfe
Thomas Wolfe
Thomas Clayton Wolfe was a major American novelist of the early 20th century.Wolfe wrote four lengthy novels, plus many short stories, dramatic works and novellas. He is known for mixing highly original, poetic, rhapsodic, and impressionistic prose with autobiographical writing...
, George Santayana
George Santayana
George Santayana was a philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist. A lifelong Spanish citizen, Santayana was raised and educated in the United States and identified himself as an American. He wrote in English and is generally considered an American man of letters...
, John Clellon Holmes
John Clellon Holmes
John Clellon Holmes , born in Holyoke, Massachusetts, was an author, poet and professor, best known for his 1952 novel Go. Considered the first "Beat" novel, Go depicted events in his life with his friends Jack Kerouac, Neal Cassady and Allen Ginsberg. He was often referred to as the "quiet Beat"...
, and Edith Wharton
Edith Wharton
Edith Wharton , was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, short story writer, and designer.- Early life and marriage:...
.
The firm published Scribner's Magazine
Scribner's Magazine
Scribner's Magazine was an American periodical published by the publishing house of Charles Scribner's Sons from January 1887 to May 1939. Scribner's Magazine was the second magazine out of the "Scribner's" firm, after the publication of Scribner's Monthly...
for many years. More recently, several Scribner titles and authors have garnered Pulitzer Prizes, National Book Awards and other merits. In 1978 the company merged with Atheneum
Atheneum Books
Atheneum Books was a publishing house and adult publisher created by Alfred A. Knopf, Jr. in 1959. He recruited editor Jean E. Karl personally, to come and establish a Children's Book Department in 1961....
and became The Scribner Book Companies, which in turn was merged into Macmillan
Macmillan Publishers (United States)
Macmillan Publishers USA, also known as Macmillan Publishing, is a privately held American publishing company owned by the Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group. It has offices in 41 countries worldwide and operates in more than 30 others....
in 1984. Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster, Inc., a division of CBS Corporation, is a publisher founded in New York City in 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. It is one of the four largest English-language publishers, alongside Random House, Penguin and HarperCollins...
bought Macmillan in 1994. By this point only the trade book and reference book operations still bore the original family name. The former imprint, now simply "Scribner," was retained by Simon & Schuster, while the reference division has been owned by Gale
Gale (publisher)
Gale is an educational publishing company based in Farmington Hills, Michigan, the United States, in the western suburbs of Detroit. It was part of the Thomson Learning division of the Thomson Corporation, a Canadian company, but became part of Cengage Learning in 2007.The company, formerly known...
since 1999.
History
The firm was founded in 1846 by Charles Scribner ICharles Scribner I
Charles Scribner I was a New Yorker who, with Isaac D. Baker , founded a publishing company that would eventually become Charles Scribner's Sons.-Biography:...
and Isaac D. Baker as "Baker & Scribner". After Baker's death Scribner bought the remainder of the company and renamed it the "Charles Scribner Company." In 1865 the company made its first venture into magazine publishing with Hours at Home.
In 1870 the Scribners organized a new firm, Scribner and Company, to publish a magazine entitled Scribner’s Monthly
Scribner’s Monthly
Scribner's Monthly: An Illustrated Magazine for the People was an American literary periodical published from 1870 until 1881.-History:Charles Scribner I, Andrew Armstrong, Arthur Peabody, Edward Seymour, Josiah Gilbert Holland, and Roswell Smith established "Scribner & Co." on July 19, 1870 to...
. After the death of Charles Scribner I in 1871, his son John Blair Scribner
John Blair Scribner
John Blair Scribner was the president of Charles Scribner's Sons from 1871 to 1879.-Biography:He was born on June 4, 1850 to Charles Scribner I and Emma Elizabeth Blair . His grandfather and namesake was John Insley Blair. He attended Princeton College, but did not graduate...
took over as president of the company. His other sons Charles Scribner II
Charles Scribner II
Charles Scribner II was the president of Charles Scribner's Sons and a trustee at Skidmore College.-Biography:...
and Arthur Hawley Scribner
Arthur Hawley Scribner
Arthur Hawley Scribner was president of Charles Scribner's Sons.-Biography:He was born on March 15, 1859.While at Princeton University he started the Ivy Club. He joined Charles Scribner's Sons in 1881. He later was president.He died in Mount Kisco, New York, on July 3, 1932. He left $150,000 to...
would also join the firm, in 1875 and 1884, and later also served as presidents. When the other partners in the venture sold their stake to the family, the company was renamed Charles Scribner's Sons.
The company launched a well-known magazine for children, St. Nicholas Magazine
St. Nicholas Magazine
St. Nicholas Magazine was a popular children's magazine, founded by Scribner's in 1873. The first editor was Mary Mapes Dodge, who continued her association with the magazine until her death in 1905. Dodge published work by the country's best writers, including Louisa May Alcott, Francis Hodgson...
, in 1873 with Mary Mapes Dodge
Mary Mapes Dodge
Mary Mapes Dodge was an American children's writer and editor, best known for her novel Hans Brinker.-Biography:...
as editor and Frank R. Stockton
Frank R. Stockton
Frank Richard Stockton was an American writer and humorist, best known today for a series of innovative children's fairy tales that were widely popular during the last decades of the 19th century...
as assistant editor. The Scribner family sold this company to outside investors in 1881 and Scribner’s Monthly was renamed the Century Magazine, with the Scribners enjoined from publishing any magazine for a period of five years. In 1886, at the expiration of this term, Scribner's Magazine
Scribner's Magazine
Scribner's Magazine was an American periodical published by the publishing house of Charles Scribner's Sons from January 1887 to May 1939. Scribner's Magazine was the second magazine out of the "Scribner's" firm, after the publication of Scribner's Monthly...
was launched.
The firm's headquarters were in the Scribner Building
Scribner Building
The Scribner Building, also known as Old Scribner Building, was designed by Ernest Flagg in a Beaux Arts style and was built in 1893. It is located at 153-157th Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, at 21st Street...
, built in 1893, on lower Fifth Avenue at 21st Street, and later in the Charles Scribner's Sons Building
Charles Scribner's Sons Building
Charles Scribner's Sons Building is a building in Manhattan at 597 Fifth Avenue, built 1912-13 to house the Scribner's Bookstore.It was designed by Ernest Flagg in a Beaux Arts style...
, on Fifth Avenue in midtown. Both buildings were designed by Ernest Flagg
Ernest Flagg
Ernest Flagg was a noted American architect in the Beaux-Arts style. He was also an advocate for urban reform and architecture's social responsibility.-Biography:...
in a Beaux Arts style.
The publisher is owned by the CBS Corporation
CBS Corporation
CBS Corporation is an American media conglomerate focused on commercial broadcasting, publishing, billboards and television production, with most of its operations in the United States. The President and CEO of the company is Leslie Moonves. Sumner Redstone, owner of National Amusements, is CBS's...
.
Presidents
- Charles Scribner ICharles Scribner ICharles Scribner I was a New Yorker who, with Isaac D. Baker , founded a publishing company that would eventually become Charles Scribner's Sons.-Biography:...
(1821–1871) 1846 to 1871 - John Blair ScribnerJohn Blair ScribnerJohn Blair Scribner was the president of Charles Scribner's Sons from 1871 to 1879.-Biography:He was born on June 4, 1850 to Charles Scribner I and Emma Elizabeth Blair . His grandfather and namesake was John Insley Blair. He attended Princeton College, but did not graduate...
(1850–1879) 1871 to 1879 - Charles Scribner IICharles Scribner IICharles Scribner II was the president of Charles Scribner's Sons and a trustee at Skidmore College.-Biography:...
(1854–1930) 1879 to ? - Arthur Hawley ScribnerArthur Hawley ScribnerArthur Hawley Scribner was president of Charles Scribner's Sons.-Biography:He was born on March 15, 1859.While at Princeton University he started the Ivy Club. He joined Charles Scribner's Sons in 1881. He later was president.He died in Mount Kisco, New York, on July 3, 1932. He left $150,000 to...
(1859–1932) circa 1900 - Charles Scribner IIICharles Scribner IIICharles Scribner III , also known as Charles Scribner, Jr., was president of Charles Scribner's Sons publishing company starting in 1932.-Biography:...
(1890–1952) 1932 to 1952 - Charles Scribner IVCharles Scribner IVCharles Scribner IV , also known as Charles Scribner, Jr., was the head of the Charles Scribner's Sons publishing company.-Biography:...
(1921–1995) 1952 to 1984
Names
- Baker & Scribner, until the death of Baker in 1850
- Charles Scribner Company
- Charles Scribner's Sons
- Scribner