 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Greenwood Publishing Group" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(September 2019) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
 Combined ABC-Clio and Greenwood logo | |
| Parent company | Bloomsbury Publishing |
|---|---|
| Status | Defunct |
| Founded | 1967 |
| Founder | Harold Mason |
| Successor | Bloomsbury Academic |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Headquarters location | Santa Barbara, California |
| Distribution | Worldwide |
| Nonfiction topics | Reference works; scholarly and general-interest; library and teaching materials |
| Imprints |
|
| Official website | www |
Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. (GPG) was an educational and academic publisher (middle school throughuniversity level) which was part ofABC-Clio. Since 2021, ABC-Clio and its suite ofimprints, including GPG, are collectively imprints of British publishing houseBloomsbury Publishing. The Greenwood name stopped being used for new books in 2023.[1]
Established in 1967 asGreenwood Press, Inc., and based inWestport, Connecticut,[2] GPG publishedreference works under its Greenwood Press imprint; and scholarly, professional, and general-interest books under its related imprint,Praeger Publishers (/ˈpreɪɡər/). Also part of GPG wasLibraries Unlimited, which published professional works for librarians and teachers.[3] Both of the latter became stand-alone imprints of ABC-Clio, in 2008–2009, after its purchase of GPG.
The company was founded as Greenwood Press, Inc. (GPI) in 1967 by Harold Mason, a librarian and antiquarian bookseller, and Harold Schwartz, who had a background in trade publishing. Based inGreenwood, New York, the company initially focused on reprintingout-of-print works, particularly titles listed in theAmerican Library Association's first edition ofBooks for College Libraries (1967), under the Greenwood Press imprint; and out-of-printperiodicals, published with the series name "American Radical Periodicals" under theGreenwood Reprint imprint. In 1969, the company was sold to Williamhouse-Regency, a paper and stationery manufacturing company then on theAmerican Stock Exchange, which led to further expanding its reprint activities as well as starting amicroform publishing imprint,Greenwood Microforms.[4]
By 1970, the company established a small scholarlymonograph project. The same year, Robert Hagelstein, formerly with the Johnson Reprint Corporation division ofAcademic Press, was hired as vice-president. In 1973, Mason and Schwartz left the company, and Hagelstein was named president, a position he would hold until his retirement at the end of 1999. During those twenty-seven years, the press wound down its reprint activities, diverting its focus to new scholarly, reference, and professional books. This large-scale redirection of the company resulted in the publication of more than 10,000 titles during those years.
On August 25, 1976, the company was sold to theCongressional Information Service (CIS). In 1979, it became part of the Dutch publishing giantElsevier following the latter's purchase of CIS. That same year, the Greenwood subsidiary initiated itsQuorum Books imprint, which published professional titles inbusiness andlaw.
On January 1, 1986, GPI expanded further when it purchasedPraeger Publishers (founded in 1950 asFrederick A. Praeger, Inc.) fromCBS, Inc.;[5][6] and again in 1989 when it acquiredBergin & Garvey andAuburn House.
At the beginning of 1990, the company's name was changed from Greenwood Press, Inc., to Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. (GPG). When Elsevier merged with Reed International in 1993, GPG became part ofReed Elsevier, and by the mid-1990s the operational part of GPG joined withHeinemann USA, which had been part of Reed.
When Hagelstein retired at the end of 1999, Wayne Smith was named president. Under Smith, GPG made a number of additional acquisitions including theAblex Publishing,Oryx Press, andLibraries Unlimited imprints, and expanded GPG'sonline andCD-ROM products under itsGreenwood Electronic Media imprint.
On July 12, 2001, Reed Elsevier completed its acquisition of Harcourt. Harcourt became a wholly owned subsidiary of Reed Elsevier and GPG became part ofHarcourt Education.
On December 13, 2007, GPG became part ofHoughton Mifflin Company as a result of Houghton's acquisition of Harcourt.[7]
On October 1, 2008,ABC-Clio andHoughton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) announced an agreement granting ABC-Clio a perpetual license to use the imprints and publish the titles of Greenwood Publishing. (GPG), includingGreenwood Publishing, Praeger Publishers (includingPraeger Security International), and Libraries Unlimited. In addition, HMH would also transfer certain assets, including copyrights, contracts, and inventory, of Greenwood Publishing Group to ABC-Clio. This agreement became effective immediately.[8][9] The 88 Post Road West office inWestport, Connecticut, was closed as a result; layoffs began in December 2008.[10] The transfer of GPG to ABC-Clio occurred during 2009.[11]
In December 2021,Bloomsbury Publishing bought ABC-Clio and with it Greenwood.[12]