Founding and
Alfred A. Knopf Sr. by
Carl Van Vechten in 1932 Knopf was founded in 1915 by
Alfred A. Knopf Sr. along with
Blanche Knopf, on a $5,000 advance from his father, Samuel Knopf. The first office was located in New York's
Candler Building. The publishing house was officially incorporated in 1918, with Alfred Knopf as president, Blanche Knopf as vice president, and Samuel Knopf as treasurer. From the start, Knopf focused on European translations and high-brow works of literature. Among their initial publications were French author
Émile Augier's
Four Plays, Russian writer
Nikolai Gogol's
Taras Bulba, Polish novelist
Stanisław Przybyszewski's novel
Homo Sapiens, and French writer
Guy de Maupassant's
Yvette, a Novelette, and Ten Other Stories. During World War I these books were cheap to obtain and helped establish Knopf as an American firm publishing European works. Their first bestseller was a new edition of
Green Mansions, a novel by
W. H. Hudson which went through nine printings by 1919 and sold over 20,000 copies. Their first original American novel,
The Three Black Pennys by
Joseph Hergesheimer, was published in 1917.
1920s With the start of the 1920s Knopf began using innovative advertising techniques to draw attention to their books and authors. Beginning in 1920, Knopf produced a
chapbook for the purpose of promoting new books.
The Borzoi was published periodically over the years, the first being a hardback called
The Borzoi and sometimes quarterly as
The Borzoi Quarterly. For Floyd Dell's coming-of-age novel,
Moon-Calf, they paid men to walk the streets of the financial and theatre districts dressed in artist costumes with
sandwich boards. The placards had a copy of the book for browsing and directed interested buyers to local book shops. The unique look of their books along with their expertise in advertising their authors drew
Willa Cather to leave her previous publisher
Houghton Mifflin to join Alfred A. Knopf. As she was still under contract for her novels, the Knopfs suggested publishing a collection of her short stories,
Youth and the Bright Medusa, in 1920. Cather was pleased with the results and the advertisement of the book in
The New Republic and would go on to publish sixteen books with Knopf, including their first
Pulitzer Prize winner,
One of Ours. Before they had married, Alfred had promised Blanche that they would be equal partners in the publishing company, but it was clear by the company's fifth anniversary that this was not to be the case. Knopf published a celebratory fifth-anniversary book in which Alfred was the focus of anecdotes by authors and Blanche's name was only mentioned once to note that "Mrs. Knopf" had found a manuscript. This despite ample evidence from authors and others that Blanche was in fact the soul of the company. This was covered extensively in
The Lady with the Borzoi by Laura Claridge. In 1923, Knopf also started publishing periodicals, beginning with
The American Mercury, founded by
H. L. Mencken and
George Jean Nathan, which it published through 1934. Also in 1923, Knopf published
Kahlil Gibran's
The Prophet. Knopf had published Gibran's earlier works which had disappointing sales. In its first year,
The Prophet only sold 1,159 copies. It would double sales the next year and keep doubling becoming one of the firm's most successful books. In 1965 the book sold 240,000 copies. Approaching its 100 year anniversary in 2023,
The Prophet has been translated into over 100 languages and has never gone out of print for Knopf. In the 1920s, Knopf sometimes withdrew or censored their books when threatened by
John Sumner, such as
Floyd Dell's
Janet March or
George Egerton's 1899 translation of
Hunger.
1930s Samuel Knopf died in 1932. William A. Koshland joined the company in 1934, and worked with the firm for more than fifty years, rising to take the positions of president and chairman of the board. Blanche became president in 1957 when Alfred became chairman of the board, and worked steadily for the firm until her death in 1966. Alfred Knopf retired in 1972, becoming chairman emeritus of the firm until his death in 1984. Alfred Knopf also had a summer home in
Purchase, New York.
1940s Following the
Good Neighbor policy, Blanche Knopf visited South America in 1942, so the firm could start producing texts from there. She was one of the first publishers to visit Europe after World War II. Her trips, and those of other editors, brought in new writers from Europe, South America, and Asia. Alfred traveled to Brazil in 1961, which spurred a corresponding interest on his part in South America. Penn Publishing Company was acquired in 1943. The Knopfs' son, Alfred "Pat" Jr., was hired on as secretary and trade books manager after the war.
1950s In 1957, editor
Judith Jones joined Knopf. Jones, who had discovered
Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl while working at Doubleday, acquired
Simone Beck,
Louisette Bertholle and
Julia Child's
Mastering the Art of French Cooking for Knopf. Jones would remain with Knopf, retiring in 2011 as a senior editor and vice-president after a career that included working with
John Updike and
Anne Tyler. Pat Knopf left his parents' publishing company in 1959 to launch his own,
Atheneum Publishers, with two other partners. The story made the front page of
The New York Times. In a 1957 advertisement in
The Atlantic Monthly, Alfred A. Knopf published the Borzoi Credo. The credo includes a list of what Knopf's beliefs for publishing including the statement that he never published an unworthy book. Among a list of beliefs listed is the final one—"I believe that magazines, movies, television, and radio will never replace good books."
Acquisition by Random House In 1960,
Random House acquired Alfred A. Knopf. Since its founding, Knopf has paid close attention to design and
typography, employing notable designers and typographers including
William Addison Dwiggins, Harry Ford,
Steven Heller,
Chip Kidd,
Lorraine Louie,
Peter Mendelsund,
Bruce Rogers,
Rudolf Ruzicka, and
Beatrice Warde. Knopf books conclude with an unnumbered page titled "A Note on the Type", which describes the history of the
typeface used for the book. In addition, Knopf books date the year of the book's current printing on the title page. Knopf published textbooks until 1988, when Random House's schools and colleges division was sold to
McGraw Hill. In 1991, Knopf revived the "
Everyman's Library" series, originally published in England in the early 20th century. This series consists of classics of world literature in affordable hardcover editions. The series has grown over the years to include lines of ''Children's Classics
and Pocket Poets''. Random House was acquired by
Bertelsmann AG in 1998. Random House has been owned since its 2013 merger of
Penguin Group by
Penguin Random House, a
joint venture between
Bertelsmann (53%) and
Pearson PLC (47%). Many of Knopf's hardcover books are published later as
Vintage paperbacks. Vintage Books is a sister imprint of Random House. In October 2012, Bertelsmann entered into talks with rival conglomerate
Pearson plc, over the possibility of combining their respective publishing companies, Random House and
Penguin Group. The merger was completed on 1 July 2013 and the new company is
Penguin Random House. Bertelsmann owned 53% of the joint venture while Pearson owned 47%. At the time of the acquisition the combined companies controlled 25% of the book business, with more than 10,000 employees and 250 independent publishing imprints and with about $3.9 billion in annual revenues. The move to consolidate was to provide leverage against
Amazon.com and battle the shrinking state of
bookstores. In 2015, Knopf celebrated its 100th anniversary by publishing a commemorative book,
Alfred A. Knopf, 1915–2015: A Century of Publishing. ==People==