Viking Press

Viking Press
Parent company Penguin Random House
Status Active
Founded 1925 (1925)
Founders Harold K. Guinzburg, George S. Oppenheim
Country of origin United States
Headquarters location New York City, New York
Key people President-Brian Tart, Children's publisher Kenneth Wright
Imprints Pamela Dorman
Official website penguin.com

Viking Press (formally Viking Penguin, also listed as Viking Books) is an American publishing company now owned by Penguin Random House.[1] It was founded in New York City on March 1, 1925, by Harold K. Guinzburg and George S. Oppenheim[2] and then acquired by the Penguin Group in 1975.[3]

History

Guinzburg and Oppenheimer founded Viking in 1925 with the goal of publishing nonfiction and “distinguished fiction with some claim to permanent importance rather than ephemeral popular interest.”[4] B. W. Huebsch joined the firm shortly afterward. Harold Guinzburg's son Thomas became president in 1961.[4]

The firm's name and logo—a Viking ship drawn by Rockwell Kent—were meant to evoke the ideas of adventure, exploration, and enterprise implied by the word "Viking."

The house has been home to many prominent authors of fiction, non-fiction, and play scripts. Five Viking authors have been awarded Nobel Prizes for Literature and one received the Nobel Peace Prize; Viking books have also won numerous Pulitzer Prizes, National Book Awards, and other important literary prizes.

The Viking Children's Book department was established in 1933; its founding editor was May Massee. Viking Kestrel was one of its imprints. Its books have won the Newbery and Caldecott Medals, and include such books as The Twenty-One Balloons, written and illustrated by William Pene du Bois (1947, Newbery medal winner for 1948), Corduroy, Make Way for Ducklings, The Stinky Cheese Man by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith (1993), The Outsiders, Pippi Longstocking, and The Story of Ferdinand. Its paperbacks are now published by Puffin Books, which includes the Speak and Firebird imprints. From 2012 and as of 2016, Viking Children's publisher is Kenneth Wright.[5]

Viking publishes approximately 75 books a year. It is notable for publishing both successful commercial fiction and acclaimed literary fiction and non-fiction, and its paperbacks are most often published by Penguin Books. Viking's current president is Brian Tart.[6]

Series

Viking Critical Library

The Viking Critical Library offers academic editions of literary texts. Like W. W. Norton's Norton Critical Editions, all titles print the text alongside a selection of critical essays and contextual documents (including relevant extracts from the author's oeuvre). The series, which only saw sporadic publications in the late '70s and late '90s, has been dormant since 1998, with no new titles released since then. However, a number of existing titles remain in print.

Titles
AuthorTitleEditorNotes
Don DeLilloWhite NoiseMark OsteenPublished in 1998. As of September 2018, the latest publication in the series.
Graham GreeneThe Quiet AmericanJohn Clark PrattPublished in 1996.
James JoyceDublinersRobert ScholesPublished in 1996.
James JoycePortrait of the Artist as a Young ManChester G. AndersonPublished in 1977. The only title which includes explanatory end notes.
Ken KeseyOne Flew Over the Cuckoo's NestJohn Clark PrattPublished in 1977. Out of print.
Jack KerouacOn the RoadScott DonaldsonPublished in 1979. Out of print.
Arthur MillerThe CrucibleGerald WealesPublished in 1996.
Arthur MillerDeath of a SalesmanGerald WealesPublished in 1996.
John SteinbeckThe Grapes of WrathKevin HearlePublished in 1997.


Notable editors

Notable authors

Viking Children's

In 1933, Viking Press founded a department called Junior Books to publish children's books. The first book published was The Story About Ping in 1933 under editor May Massee. Other stories published under the Viking label early in its history include Make Way for Ducklings (1941), The Twenty-One Balloons (1947) and The Story of Ferdinand (1936). Junior Books was renamed to Viking Children's Books at some point in the past. It currently publishes approximately sixty titles a year.

Notable authors

Awards

  • 10 Newbery Medals
  • 10 Caldecott Medals
  • 27 Newbery Honors
  • 33 Caldecott Honors
  • 1 American Book Award
  • 2 Coretta Scott King Awards
  • 3 Batcheldor Honors
  • 5 Christopher Medals
  • 2 Margaret A. Edwards Awards for authors S. E. Hinton and Richard Peck

References

  1. ↑ Whitman, Alden (1975-11-11). "Viking Press Is Sold to Penguin Books". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-09-13.
  2. ↑ Kenneth T. Jackson; Lisa Keller; Nancy Flood (1995). The Encyclopedia of New York City: Second Edition. New York: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0300055368.
  3. ↑ Egli, ed. (1975). "Viking Press Is Sold To Penguin Books". School Library Journal. 22 (4): 16.
  4. 1 2 Weber, Bruce. "Thomas Guinzburg, Paris Review Co-Founder, Dies at 84", The New York Times, September 10, 2010. Accessed September 13, 2010.
  5. ↑ "Viking Children's Books". Penguin Random House. Retrieved April 17, 2016.
  6. ↑ "Brian Tart | The Bookseller". www.thebookseller.com. Retrieved 2017-09-13.
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