Sale To Random House
Evelyn Shrifte had been president of the Vanguard Press for 36 years when, in October 1988, the company was sold to Random House. She told The New York Times that the sale of the 62-year-old independent publishing house was prompted by the poor health of some of Vanguard's investors. The valuable 500-title backlist of the Vanguard Press was merged into that of Random House, although for 10 years they were to be identified on the title page as Vanguard Press books.
"Random House will take good care of our books and authors," Shrifte said. "But it's as if all my children were being sent to a foster home. I'm trying not to cry while I break the news to our authors."
The archives of the Vanguard Press from its conceptual origins in 1925 through approximately 1985, including over 129,000 documents, was donated by Random House to Columbia University in New York City in 1989. Evelyn Shrifte's papers are in the collection of Syracuse University.
Read more about this topic: Vanguard Press, Institutional History
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