Book lovers interested in law, business, architecture, Jewish studies, psychology, the arts and humanities will be well familiar with Yale University Press (YUP) books. But it was in 2001 when the Press reached a wide, general public like never before: After the terrorist attacks of September 11, Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid’s Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil, and Fundamentalism in Central Asia was then the only available introduction to the Taliban.
The book went on to sell hundreds of thousands of copies and reached the New York Times bestseller lists; a record showing the strength of university publishing, however grim the source of this success may have been.
A Brief History of Yale University Press
Yale University Press was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day who headed the Press for 50 years. The publisher's initial tiny Manhattan office was exchanged already in 1910 with a more spacious one on the Yale University campus in New Haven, CT. In 1961, the Press officially became a department of Yale University, yet remained financially and operationally independent.
The Press’s first book was Benjamin W. Bacon’s The Beginnings of Gospel Story, published in 1909, but it soon expanded its list to multi-volume series, illustrated histories and poetry and lecture series. YUP's publications were soon known to represent high scholarly efforts and publishing standards and from the 1960s to 1970s, the number of titles published annually tripled from 30 to 90. A huge success then but title output should increase further and reach the current figure of 300 titles annually.
Yale University Press London
In 1961, YUP established its presence across the Atlantic with the opening of an office in London, therefore reversing the trend of some British university presses like Oxford University Press that had stretched their feelers across the Atlantic earlier. The new branch, Yale University Press, Limited was initially set up in a sales function to market and sell the American Press books abroad. However, just a decade later, this function changed and the branch expanded.
In 1973, John Nicoll took over as the Press’s director; a role he should keep for the next 30 years. He developed the London office into an independent division with its own editorial department, acquisitions strategy and publishing identity. In 1984, the name was changed to Yale University Press, London and today, this division publishes almost one third of all of YUP’s titles.
Cooperation with Other Presses and Organizations
Be it Yale University Press’s The Annotated Shakespeare series, the long-running Yale Series of Younger Poets, the Yale Judaica series or its Bibliography of American Literature, series and other initiatives have helped the Press stay afloat and independent even in difficult financial times. Recent projects include the following:
- Various digital initiatives have brought interactivity to scholars worldwide; current plans include an electronic publishing imprint.
- In 2001, Yale established TriLiteral LLC together with Harvard University Press and MIT Press, a warehouse and distribution center.
- For the last 20 years, YUP has published and distributed exhibition catalogs for various museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of New York, the National Gallery of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago and the National Gallery in London.
University press publishing is niche publishing that can be hard to sustain in economically difficult times. The example of Yale University Press shows that specialization, quality and diversification are crucial for retaining an independent and leading position.
More information about Yale University Press, including annual reports, can be found on the Press’s website. Readers may also be interested in a profile of Oxford University Press and other presses or the Economics of Scholarly Publishing.
Simone Preuss - Simone is a freelance writer, editor and translator who decided to go solo after a successful career in publishing. That was more than ...
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