Origins In 1839,
Moses Woodruff Dodd (1813–1899) and John S. Taylor, at that time a leading publisher in New York, In 1840, Dodd bought out Taylor and renamed the company as M.W. Dodd. Frank Howard Dodd (1844–1916) joined his father in business in 1859 and became increasingly involved in the publishing company's operation. With the retirement of founder Moses Dodd in 1870, control passed to his son
Frank Howard Dodd, who joined in partnership with his cousin
Edward S. Mead (1847–1894), and the company was reorganized as Dodd and Mead.
Growth and prominence The company was well known for the quality of its publications, including many books on American history and contemporary literature. As a bookseller, the firm was a dealer and leading authority in rare books. Dodd, Mead and Company published the work of new poets including
Robert W. Service,
Bliss Carman and
Paul Laurence Dunbar. When Frank Dodd died in 1916, the partnership was dissolved and the business was incorporated. Dodd's only son, Edward H. Dodd, succeeded him as president. In 1922 Dodd, Mead and Company began a period of great expansion with the purchase of the American branch of John Lane Company, publisher of
Anatole France,
William John Locke and many prominent poets. Other authors included
Aubrey Beardsley,
Max Beerbohm,
Rupert Brooke,
G. K. Chesterton,
Agatha Christie,
Theodore Dreiser, and
Stephen Leacock. In 1924 Dodd purchased Moffat, Yard & Co., adding books by
William James,
Sigmund Freud, and
Carl Jung to their list. Dodd, Mead's
New International Encyclopedia was sold in 1931 to
Funk & Wagnalls. In 1934, Dodd, Mead acquired Duffield and Green, publisher of
Elinor Glyn,
Emma Gelders Sterne, and
General Krasnov; and the Sears Publishing Company. Dodd, Mead acquired the complete works of
George Bernard Shaw.
Acquisition and end In December 1981, Dodd, Mead and Company became a subsidiary of
Thomas Nelson Inc. One of the last family-owned publishers in the United States, it was purchased for $4 million. The company was sold again in 1986 to Gamut Publishing Company, a partnership founded by Jon B. Harden and Lynne A. Lumsden for the purpose of acquiring book publishing companies, for $4.7 million. To retire some of its debt, the owners of the 149-year-old publishing house sold its greatest assets – the U.S. rights to books by
Agatha Christie and
Max Brand — to the
Putnam Berkley Group in 1988. The business operations of Dodd, Mead and Company were suspended in March 1989 pending the outcome of arbitration with its fulfillment house, Metro Services, Inc. By the end of 1990 the company ceased publications. == Authors ==