As of 2018, several firms in theUnited States rank among the world's biggestpublishers ofbooks in terms of revenue:Cengage Learning,HarperCollins,Houghton Mifflin Harcourt,McGraw Hill Education,Scholastic,Simon & Schuster, andWiley.[1][nb 1]
In 1640, inCambridge, Massachusetts,Stephen Daye produced thefirst book printed in British North America, theBay Psalm Book.[4] New England became the first early hub.Philadelphia also became significant, withWilliam Bradford setting up the first paper mill andBenjamin Franklin opening his own press.
By the mid-19th century,New York City became the industry's center, marked by the rise of large publishing houses likeHarper,Wiley,Putnam, andScribner, who benefited from copyright laws and new distribution methods. Initially, they heavily relied on pirated British works untilinternational copyright laws were established in 1891.[5] The mid-19th century also saw innovations like paperback "dime novels" making literature more accessible.[6] TheAmerican Library Association formed in 1876, and theBibliographical Society of America in 1904.
The post-World War I era was a boom for American publishing with new writers and publishers likeSimon & Schuster andRandom House emerging. The Great Depression caused a setback, but the industry recovered post-war. Since the 1960s, there's been a trend of mergers and consolidation, accelerating with the rise of online retailers and ebooks, though New York City remains a major global publishing center, home to the "Big Five" publishers (includingHarperCollins,Penguin Random House, andSimon & Schuster) and major educational publishers likeMacmillan Learning,McGraw-Hill,Scholastic,Wiley, and numerous independent publishers.[7] Starting withCornell University Press in 1869 andJohns Hopkins University Press in 1878, many universities set up publishing houses to publish scholarly books and journals of this sort produced by their faculty and graduate students. In the 21st century, however, financial pressures. have been reducing their output.[8]
Popular books in the 19th century included Sheldon'sIn His Steps (1896). 20th century bestsellers included Mitchell'sGone with the Wind (1936), Carnegie'sHow to Win Friends and Influence People (1937), Spock'sCommon Sense Book of Baby and Child Care (1946), Harris'I'm OK – You're OK (1969), Woodward and Bernstein'sAll the President's Men (1974). Recent bestsellers have included Warren'sPurpose-Driven Life (2002) and Brown'sDa Vinci Code (2003).[9]
The influential "New York Times Best Seller list" first appeared in 1931. The online booksellerAmazon.com began business in July 1995, based in the state ofWashington.[10][11]
Some notable collections of books of the United States include:
The nonprofitInternet Archive beganscanning books in 2004, in the same year thatGoogle Inc. launchedGoogle Book Search. In 2005, Google began scanning pages of volumes in several large research libraries in the US, as part of its newGoogle Books Library Project. TheOpen Content Alliance formed in 2005.
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{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link){{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)1.Hugh Amory; David D. Hall, eds. (2000),The Colonial Book in the Atlantic World, A History of the Book in America, vol. 1, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press,ISBN 9780807868003,OL 25415240M, 0807868000online copy
2.Robert A. Gross; Mary Kelley, eds. (2010),An Extensive Republic: Print, Culture, and Society in the New Nation, 1790-1840, A History of the Book in America, vol. 2, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press,ISBN 9780807833391, 0807833398online copy
3.Scott E. Casper; Jeffrey D. Groves; Stephen W. Nissenbaum; et al., eds. (2007),The Industrial Book, 1840-1880, A History of the Book in America, vol. 3, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press,ISBN 9780807830857,OL 9892598M, 0807830852--online copy
4.Carl F. Kaestle; Janice A. Radway, eds. (2009),Print in Motion: The Expansion of Publishing and Reading in the United States, 1880-1940, A History of the Book in America, vol. 4, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press,ISBN 9780807831861,OL 25415239M, 0807831867 --online copy
5.David Paul Nord; Joan Shelley Rubin; Michael Schudson, eds. (2009),The Enduring Book: Print Culture in Postwar America, A History of the Book in America, vol. 5, Chapel Hill: Published in association with the American Antiquarian Society by the University of North Carolina Press,ISBN 9780807832851,OCLC 261174626, 0807832855--online copy
+ "Print Culture" (Includes articles on American book history)Database and search engine built upon thecirculation records of theMuncie (Indiana) Public Library from 1891 to 1902
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