History
The Cirkers started the business selling remaindered textbooks by mail. The company published its first book, Tables of Functions with Formulas and Curves, when the German copyright was voided by the United States as a result of World War II. The book was an unexpected success and established the Dover business model of publishing esoteric works at a low price. One of Dover's best sellers was Albert Einstein's The Principle of Relativity, which Einstein reluctantly agreed to republish despite his concerns that it was outdated.
Dover was influential in transforming the paperback book market. In 1951 it issued some of the earliest standard-sized paperbacks, a format that became known as a trade paperback. Since the 1960s, the vast majority of Dover's titles have been paper-bound books of various sizes. Dover paperbacks were noted for their quality of manufacture. They were printed on high quality, non-yellowing paper and the pages were sewn in signatures (a method traditionally used for the best books) unlike most paperbacks which were held together with glue and subject to page drop-out. Current Dover paperbacks are not manufactured to this exemplary standard, presumably due to cost-cutting economic measures.
For a time, Dover also published a catalog of LP phonograph records. Some, such as selected recordings of Schubert's solo and chamber works featuring pianist Friedrich Wührer, were reissues of earlier monaural releases from other labels. Noteworthy among Dover's original issues was an extensive series documenting pianist Beveridge Webster in literature ranging from Beethoven's Hammerklavier sonata to the second piano sonata by Roger Sessions. Dover's foray into recordings, however, was not as successful as its core business of book republication, and the company eventually abandoned it.
Starting in the 1990s Dover has published a specialized line of low-cost reprints of public domain literature known as "Dover Thrift Editions", which are generally priced at US$5 or less. They also have several lines of foreign language books.
Hayward Cirker died in 2000 at the age of 82. In the same year Dover Publications was acquired by Courier Corporation (NASDAQ: CRRC).
Read more about this topic: Dover Publications
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