Crown Publishing Group#Imprints

The company was founded in 1933 as the Outlet Book Company by Nat Wartels and Bob Simon. Outlet Book Company began by featuring overstock and remaindered books, but soon moved into reprints of backlist, out-of-print, largely non-fiction titles, then into reprints of bestselling fiction and non-fiction, and eventually into original titles. It was under the Crown name that they began to publish original content in 1936.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/02/08/obituaries/nat-wartels-88-the-chairman-of-the-crown-publishing-empire.html|title=Nat Wartels, 88, the Chairman Of the Crown Publishing Empire|last=McDowell|first=Edwin|work=The New York Times|date=February 8, 1990 |access-date=May 27, 2018|language=en}}

Crown acquired bankrupt publishers such as Covici-Friede, Henkle-Yewdale, and Robert M. McBride in the 1940s.{{Cite book| publisher = Gale Research Company| isbn = 0-8103-1724-9| volume = 46| pages = [https://archive.org/details/americanliterary0046unse/page/101 101–102]| last = Pryor| first = Elizabeth Scott| editor-last = Dzwonkoski| editor-first = Peter| title = American literary publishing houses, 1900-1980| chapter = Crown Publishers| location = Detroit, Mich.| series = Dictionary of literary biography| date = 1986| chapter-url = https://archive.org/details/americanliterary0046unse/page/101}} Other publishers acquired by Crown include Arcadia House; Howell, Soskin; and Julian Press.{{Cite book| publisher = Gale Research Co| isbn = 978-0-8103-1724-6| pages = [https://archive.org/details/americanliterary0046unse/page/193 193–194]|editor= Peter Dzwonkoski | last = Tollers| first = Vincent L.| title = American Literary Publishing Houses, 1900-1980. Trade and paperback| chapter = Howell, Soskin and Company| location = Detroit, Mich| series = Dictionary of Literary Biography| date = 1986| chapter-url = https://archive.org/details/americanliterary0046unse/page/193}}{{Cite book| publisher = Gale Research Co| isbn = 978-0-8103-1724-6| last1 = Dzwonkoski| first1 = Peter| editor-last = Dzwonkoski| editor-first = Peter| title = American Literary .Publishing Houses, 1900-1980. Trade and paperback| chapter = Arcadia House| location = Detroit, Mich| series = Dictionary of Literary Biography| date = 1986| url-access = registration| url = https://archive.org/details/americanliterary0046unse}} Clarkson Potter became affiliated with Crown in 1963.{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1973/11/27/archives/pamela-howard-wed-to-clarkson-n-potter.html | title=Pamela Howard Wed to Clarkson N. Potter | work=The New York Times | date=November 27, 1973 }}

Under the direction of Wartels, Alan Mirken, Joseph Reiner and others, Crown Books became one of the Outlet Book Company's lead imprints for original publishing which included such landmark fiction and non-fiction as Judith Krantz's Princess Daisy, Jean M. Auel's The Clan of the Cave Bear and Alex Comfort's The Joy of Sex in its early high-profile years.

Crown Publishing Group had its headquarters at 225 Park Avenue South in Midtown Manhattan,The Illustrated Gospels: According to St. Matthew, St. Mark, St. Luke & St. John. Crown Publishers, 1985. {{ISBN|0517559250}}, 9780517559253. p. 4. "Published in the United States in 1985 by Crown Publishers, Inc. , 225 Park Avenue South, New York, New York, 10003"School Library Journal: SLJ., Volume 36, Issues 7-12. R.R. Bowker Company, Xerox Company, 1990. p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=h6IPAQAAMAAJ&q=%22Crown+Publishing%22+%22225+Park%22 27]. See image: "The Crown Publishing Group 225 Park Ave. South, New York, NY 10003 A Random House Company" occupying {{convert|80000|sqft|sqm}} of space. Random House received the space when it acquired the company. In 1990 Random House signaled intentions to sublease the space.{{cite news|author=Dunlap, David W.|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/12/02/realestate/commercial-property-book-publishers-random-house-elects-stay-its-midtown-tower.html|title=Commercial Property: Book Publishers; Random House Elects to Stay in Its Midtown Tower|newspaper=The New York Times|date=December 2, 1990|access-date=January 6, 2019}}

The Outlet Book Company's Crown Books remained an independent company until 1988 when it was purchased by Random House.

In 2008, the Doubleday Business/Currency, Doubleday Religion, and WaterBrook Multnomah divisions were moved from Doubleday to Crown when Doubleday was merged with Knopf.{{Cite web| last = Rich| first = Motoko| title = Major Reorganization at Random House| work = ArtsBeat| access-date = October 14, 2019| date = December 3, 2008| url = https://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/03/major-reorganization-at-random-house/}} Doubleday Religion was replaced with the Catholic imprint Image in 2011.{{Cite web| title = Crown Reorganizes Religion Program| work = PublishersWeekly.com| access-date = October 14, 2019| url = https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/46363-crown-reorganizes-religion-program.html}}

In 2018, Crown was combined with the main Random House Publishing Group.{{cite web |last1=Milliot |first1=Jim |title=Centrello Details Crown Reorg |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/78763-centrello-details-crown-reorg.html |website=PublishersWeekly.com |access-date=August 2, 2022 |language=en}}

Following the 2018 reorganization, the imprints that constitute Crown Publishing continued to be tied together into three imprint groups within Random House. The "trade" group includes the imprints Crown, Crown Archetype, Broadway Books, Hogarth, Three Rivers Press, and Tim Duggan Books. An illustrated and prescriptive nonfiction group comprises Clarkson Potter, Harmony Books, Rodale Books, and Ten Speed Press (which includes sub-imprints Lorena Jones Books and Watson-Guptill). A third group collects the business, conservative politics, and Christianity imprints Currency (formerly Doubleday/Crown Business), Crown Forum, Convergent, Image (formerly Doubleday Religion), Multnomah, and WaterBrook.

Former imprints of the Crown Publishing Group included Amphoto Books, Bell Tower Press, Orion Books (unconnected to Orion Publishing), Shaye Areheart, and some related subsidiaries like Gramercy Publishing Company. These have either been discontinued or transferred to other Random House units.

{{reflist|refs=

{{cite web |url= http://www.randomhouse.com/crown/authors.html |title= Crown Publishing Group: Authors |work= RandomHouse.com}}

{{cite web |url= http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3065/is_n1_v17/ai_6244119 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20060623061817/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3065/is_n1_v17/ai_6244119 |url-status= dead |archive-date= June 23, 2006 |title= Ten inducted into Publishing Hall of Fame |first= Diane|last= Cyr |work= Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management |date= January 1988 |quote= Nat Wartels, founder, Crown Publishers, inducted for outstanding contributions to book publishing. Wartels' philosophy has been "to perceive what people in the marketplace want, and find the right author, art director and whoever else is needed to shape the book for the audience." With that, Wartels organized the bankrupt Outlet Book Company—which he bought for a few hundred dollars during the Depression—into highly successful Crown Publishing.}}

{{cite web |url= http://www.randomhouse.com/valuepublishing/about_us.html |title= History |work= RandomHouse.com |quote= In 1933, inspired entrepreneurs Nat Wartels and Bob Simon founded a book company named Outlet Book Company. With the goal of providing quality books at inexpensive prices, Wartels and Simon used innovative techniques to create new markets for the books, bringing Outlet to the forefront of bargain book publishing. Outlet Book Company also introduced the concept of reprinting bestselling books to sell at bargain prices.}}

{{cite web |url= https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE5D8133CF930A25752C0A966958260 |title= Chronicle |author= Susan Heller Anderson |work= The New York Times |date= January 13, 1990 |quote= Mr. Mirken joined Crown in 1951. He developed Publishers Central Bureau, a leading mail-order book and video distributor, and the Outlet Book Company, which markets promotional books. Crown also publishes trade books, including those of the best-selling authors Judith Krantz, Jean Auel and William J. Caunitz.}}

{{cite web |url= https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D05E5DC173BF935A35753C1A965948260 |title= Joseph H. Reiner Dead at 71; Crown Publishers Executive |work= The New York Times |date= October 6, 1983 |quote= Mr. Reiner originated the Bonanza division of Outlet, which brought books back into print in quality hardcover editions. These included Bruce Catton's American Heritage Picture History of the Civil War, the original water-color paintings by John James Audubon and works by such authors as Frank Lloyd Wright and P. G. Wodehouse.}}

{{cite web|url=http://www1.iwon.com/home/careers/company_profile/0,15623,175,00.html |title=Random House: The Scoop |work=Company Profile on the iWon website |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070814010612/http://www1.iwon.com/home/careers/company_profile/0%2C15623%2C175%2C00.html |archive-date=August 14, 2007 }}

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Category:1933 establishments in New York City

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