Doubleday (publisher) - History

History

The firm was founded as Doubleday & McClure Company in 1897 by Frank Nelson Doubleday, who had formed a partnership with the magazine publisher Samuel McClure. One of their first bestsellers was The Day's Work by Rudyard Kipling. Other authors published by the company in its early years include W. Somerset Maugham and Joseph Conrad. Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. later served as a vice-president of the company.

In 1900, the company became Doubleday, Page & Company when Walter Hines Page joined as a new partner. In 1922, the founder's son, Nelson Doubleday, joined the firm.

In 1910, Doubleday, Page, and Co. moved its operations to Garden City, which include its own train station. The Doubleday company purchased much of the land on the west side of Franklin Avenue, and estate homes were built for many of its executives on Fourth Street. In 1916, company co-founder and Garden City resident Walter Hines Page was named Ambassador to Great Britain.

In 1927, Doubleday merged with the George H. Doran Company, creating Doubleday, Doran, then the largest publishing business in the English-speaking world. In 1946, the company became Doubleday and Company. Nelson Doubleday resigned as president, but continued as chairman of the board until his death on January 11, 1949. Douglas Black took over and was president from 1946 to 1963. By 1947, Doubleday was the largest publisher in the US, with annual sales of over 30 million books.

Doubleday's son-in-law John Sargent was president and CEO from 1963 to 1978; his son was a business associate in the publishing division. He was chairman from 1978 to 1985, and after that chairman of the executive committee. His son John Turner Sargent, Jr. later moved to the Macmillan Company, where he is now CEO.

In 1978 Nelson Doubleday, Jr. became president of the company. In 1980, it bought the New York Mets baseball team.

Doubleday sold the publishing company to Bertelsmann in 1986. In 1988, it became part of the Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, which in turn became a division of Random House in 1998.

In late 2008 and early 2009, the Doubleday imprint was merged with Knopf Publishing Group to form the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.