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COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS HISTORICAL TIMELINE

N E W YO R K T I M E S A N N O U N C E M E N T, J U N E 1 4 1 8 93 , O F T H E I N CO R P O R AT I O N O F CO LU M B I A U N I V E R S I T Y P R E S S

MAY 1893 A formal proposal to establish Columbia

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University Press, signed by Seth Low,

JUNE 1, 1893 The Press is established as a separately

Nicholas Murray Butler, and seven other

incorporated not-for-profit organization

Columbia University trustees, is presented

affiliated with the college. The

to the full trustees board and approved.

trustees feel that “it is not expedient for the College, as a corporation, to

SINCE COLUMBIA COLLEGE DID NOT

undertake the business of printing.”

OFFICIALLY BECOME COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY UNTIL 1896, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS IS ACTUALLY THREE YEARS

JUNE 13, 1893 At the first meeting of Columbia

OLDER THAN COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY!

University Press trustees, Seth Low is

FEBRUARY 6, 1894

elected president. The trustees approve and adopt a device to be used on Columbia

A contract is signed with Macmillan &

University Press publications: the crown

Company to act as “publishers and agents

of King’s College above an open book that

of the Press for a period of five years.”

bears upon its pages the dates 1754 and

JULY 1, 1894

1893 and the name of the Press. Below the book a scroll reads “In litteris libertas.”

The Press’s first book, Classical Studies in Honour of Henry Drisler

1897

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JANUARY 28, 1895 Low makes gift of $10,000 to the Press. Most of this sum is invested in bonds

The Press establishes the University Bookstore in West Hall, approximately

that produce about $465 that year

where the Math Lawn and Earl Hall

in income. This is the only assured income of the Press, aside from $50

stand today. Lemcke and Buechner serve

a year in fees from the Trustees.

as U.S. sales agents for Press books and as managing agent of the Bookstore.

BEFORE LOW’S GIFT IN 1895, THE PRESS WAS FINANCED BY THE TRUSTEES. AT

UNTIL 1926, THE MANAGER OF THE

THE TRUSTEES MEETING ON JANUARY

BOOKSTORE AND THE MANAGER OF THE

4, 1894, IT WAS “RESOLVED THAT EACH

PRESS WERE ONE AND THE SAME.

TRUSTEE BE ASSESSED THE SUM OF $5, IN

1901

INCIDENTAL EXPENSES OF THE PRESS.” BY

director of the Press, resigns to

FEBRUARY 4, 1895, THERE WAS A BALANCE

run for mayor of New York City.

1902

IN THE “CONTINGENT FUND” OF $2.25.

Nicholas Murray Butler takes over

IN 1895 THE PRESS SOLD 361 BOOKS. IT HAD ONLY TWO TITLES IN PRINT AND AVAILABLE FOR SALE.

from Low as president and director of the Press and serves until 1907.

ORDER TO PROVIDE A CONTINGENT FUND FROM WHICH TO MEET THE CURRENT

Seth Low, first president and

1907 Columbia trustee William H.

1908 Constitutional Government in the United States, by the future U.S. president Woodrow Wilson

Carpenter, professor of Germanic philology, is made director.

1910 Columbia University Contributions

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to Anthropology, vol. 2, Kwakiutl

1911 When its relationship with Macmillan

Tales, edited by Franz Boas, is the

comes to an end, the Press contracts with

first volume in what will become

new sales agents: Oxford University Press

an annual series edited by Boas.

in “Great Britain and the Colonies” and (under a separate agreement) in Canada

1913

and the New York office of Lemcke and Buechner in the United States.

The Press has 195 titles in print, sells 6,900 copies, and takes in $7,300.

1916

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The Chief Magistrate and His Powers,

1915 The Records of Civilization Series launches, meant to serve as “an encyclopedia of original documents.”

by former U.S. president

The first editor is James T. Shotwell,

William Howard Taft

professor of history at Columbia.

1921

The Press publishes a syllabus for a new

BETWEEN 1915 AND 1980, THE PRESS PUBLISHED 96 VOLUMES OF THE RECORDS.

interdisciplinary freshman course at

EDITORSHIP OF THE SERIES WAS HELD BY

Columbia College, An Introduction to

SOME OF THE MOST EMINENT HISTORIANS

Contemporary Civilization in the West.

IN THE UNITED STATES, INCLUDING JACQUES BARZUN FROM 1953–1962.

1922

With a loan from the University, the

1922 Trustee Frederick Coykendall helps

Press purchases the inventory of

spearhead a reorganization of the

Lemcke and Buechner’s bookstore,

Press. A special committee proposes

which becomes part of the Press.

that the contract with Lemcke and Buechner be terminated and that

1923

the Press take over operation of the bookstore and sell its own books.

The Press office is located in a single room in the Journalism Building. The Press is gradually allocated more space until it occupies about half

1925 Frederick Coykendall, a university

of the sixth and seventh floors and

trustee and head of the Cornell

parts of the attic and basement.

Steamboat Company, which ran tugboats on the Hudson River, is

1923 The first volumes of Lynn Thorndike’s History of Magic and Experimental Science, a work that will grow to eight volumes

appointed director of the Press. AT THE END OF 1923, THE PRESS’S LIABILITIES HAD EXCEEDED ITS ASSETS BY $6,400; ON DECEMBER 30, 1924, ASSETS EXCEEDED LIABILITIES BY $32,000. THIS WAS IN PART THANKS TO REFORMS PLANNED AND CARRIED OUT BY COYKENDALL.

1926 Austin P. Evans becomes editor of the

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1927

Records of Civilization series. Later

The first volume (of an eventual

in his tenure, he will urge the Press

fifteen) of George Clinton Densmore

to add volumes that would provide

Odell’s Annals of the New York Stage

solid backgrounds for the post-

ODELL’S FIFTEEN-VOLUME COLLECTION

WWII American interest in Asian

CONTAINS MORE THAN 11,500 PAGES OF

languages, literatures, and cultures.

TEXT AND HUNDREDS OF PHOTOGRAPHS AND REPRODUCTIONS OF DOCUMENTS. THIS

1926

WAS A REMARKABLE ACHIEVEMENT FOR A SCHOLAR WORKING ALONE, ESPECIALLY

The American Institute of Graphic

WHEN ONE CONSIDERS THAT ODELL DID

Arts makes Thomas Francis Carter’s

NOT BEGIN WORK ON HIS MANUSCRIPT

Invention of Printing in China one of its

UNTIL AFTER THE AGE OF SIXTY-FIVE.

Fifty Books of 1926 in recognition of the Press’s “effort . . . to give variety and added

1927

interest” to the appearance of books.

A university printing office is created

1928

as a department of the Press.

Clarke Fisher Ansley joins the Press from Encyclopedia Britannica. His

brief is twofold: to establish an

1929 The Press agrees to act as publisher

editorial department and to create

for the Columbia University Council

The Columbia Encyclopedia.

for Research in the Social Sciences and the corresponding Council for

THE CREATION OF THE ENCYCLOPEDIA,

Research in the Humanities.

FROM THE DETAILED PLANNING OF THE ARTICLE LIST, THROUGH THE WRITING

1929

AND EDITING OF THE ARTICLES, TO THE READING OF THE FINAL PROOFS,

William Linn Westermann’s Upon

TOOK JUST SHORT OF SEVEN YEARS.

Slavery in Ptolemaic Egypt inaugurates the series Columbia Papyri. The

1930

book is Westermann’s translation of commentary on a “royal ordinance”

The Press agrees to act as publisher

on slaves that he dates to sometime

for the New York School of Social

before the autumn of 197 BC.

Work, later the Columbia University School of Social Work. THE PRESS WAS FOR MANY DECADES THE ONLY UNIVERSITY PRESS TO PUBLISH IN THE FIELD OF SOCIAL WORK.

1931 The first four volumes of what will become a definitive eighteen-volume edition of John Milton’s works

1931 The Press publishes eighty-three new titles, more than any other American university press and twenty-fifth among all American publishers.

BY ITS COMPLETION IN 1938, COLUMBIA’S WORKS OF JOHN MILTON WILL BECOME THE PREMIERE COMPLETE EDITION. AN EARLY REVIEW SAID THAT IT “WOULD HAVE DELIGHTED THE ARTISTIC AND FASTIDIOUS POET HIMSELF.”

1931 The Press inaugurates the Anglo-Saxon

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1932

Poetic Records series with The Junius

Ernest F. Scott’s The Literature of the

Manuscript, edited George Phillip Krapp.

New Testament is the first book ever commissioned by the Press. It is part

THE ANGLO-SAXON POETIC RECORDS,

of the Records of Civilization series.

WHICH WILL INCLUDE SIX VOLUMES, WAS INTENDED TO INCLUDE EVERY SURVIVING

1932

POETIC WORK IN OLD ENGLISH. IT REMAINS

The Press agrees to act as publisher for

THE STANDARD REFERENCE WORK FOR OLD ENGLISH POETRY TO THIS DAY.

1933

the New York State Historical Association.

The first four volumes of the History

1933 The Press agrees to act as publisher

of the State of New York, edited by the

for the Welfare Council of New York

state historian, Alexander C. Flick

City, later the Health and Welfare Council, and still later the Community

1935

Council of Greater New York.

The first edition of The Columbia Encyclopedia is published. The New York

Times calls The Columbia Encyclopedia

1936 James T. Shotwell, director of the division

“the first one-volume encyclopedia in

of economics and history of the Carnegie

English worthy of the name.” Other

Endowment for International Peace and

newspapers and journals with a broad

a trustee of the World Peace Foundation,

spectrum of political and religious

works with the Press to set up a new

views also praise its lack of bias. It

department, the International Documents

brings the Press to the attention of new

Service, to distribute the publications of

readers who had not known such a

international organizations—initially, the

publisher existed, and a second printing

League of Nations, the Permanent Court

is ordered before the end of the year.

of International Justice, and the Institute of International Intellectual Cooperation.

THE ENCYCLOPEDIA CONTAINED TWICE AS MANY WORDS AS ORIGINALLY

1936

PLANNED AND ONE-AND-ONE-

Collier’s is licensed to print an edition of

THIRD AS MANY ENTRIES.

The Columbia Encyclopedia for door-to-

1939

door sales. This arrangement will bring

The first of six volumes of The

in substantial income for the Press and

Letters of Ralph Waldo Emerson,

help pay for preparations for a revised

edited by Ralph Leslie Rusk THIS BOOK HAS NEVER GONE OUT OF PRINT AND REMAINS FOR SALE TO THIS DAY. IT’S THE PRESS’S OLDEST CONTINUOUSLY IN-PRINT TITLE.

edition of The Encyclopedia and the expansion of other publishing activities.

1939 The Press publishes 102 books, breaking the century mark for the first time.

1939 The Press commissions a survey on the

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EARLY 1940s

need for a complete edition of The Papers

Income rises, in part thanks

of Alexander Hamilton. The report comes

to the Encyclopedia and the

in June 1939 but plans are shelved when

government’s purchase of 12,500

war breaks out in Europe that September.

1941 The first two members of the Press

copies for use by the military.

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leave for war service. By the end of

1943 Columbia University Educational

1944, a total of thirteen Press employees

Films is created as a division of the

are on leave for military service.

Press to produce films for use in teaching and, later, documentary films

1944

for the World Health Organization

The Press takes over the compilation

and other groups. The films division

of the Directory of Social Agencies

operates for more than thirty years.

of the City of New York.

1946

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1945 The Press takes over publication

The stockroom, once in the attic of

of Granger’s Index to Poetry, the

the Journalism Building, moves to

first edition of which had been published in 1904 by A. C. McClurg.

a university-owned former hospital building on Fifty-Ninth Street.

1945 1946

The Press joins with the J.B. Lippincott Company to revise and republish a global

At the annual meeting of the Press

reference work that will be called The

trustees, Frederick Coykendall proposes

Columbia Lippincott Gazetteer of the World.

new bylaws that incorporate extensive changes. Among the most notable

BEFORE THE NEW GAZETTEER OF THE

is the removal of the provision that

WORLD APPEARED, THE STANDARD

the president of the University be

GAZETTEER FOR AMERICAN READERS WAS

president of the Press. The revised

LIPPINCOTT’S PRONOUNCING GAZETTEER,

bylaws are unanimously adopted, and

WHICH HAD NOT BEEN REVISED SINCE 1905.

Coykendall is elected president of the Press. Coykendall then appoints Charles

of Opera, which is also featured in the

College and Columbia Law School and a Press employee since 1927, as director.

1948 Columbia University Educational Films produces the first survey of the

1947 Donald J. Grout’s A Short History

G. Proffitt, a graduate of Columbia

Textbooks of the Year exhibition

GROUT’S SHORT HISTORY WAS IMMEDIATELY RECOGNIZED INTERNATIONALLY AS A CLASSIC IN THE FIELD. IT WAS, HOWEVER, NOT WHAT ONE WOULD CONSIDER

audio-visual needs and facilities of the

SHORT. THE 1947 FIRST EDITION

University. As a result, an Audio-Visual

CAME IN AT 711 PAGES. THE FOURTH

Center is established as a part of the Press.

EDITION, STILL CALLED “SHORT,” FALLS ONLY 8 PAGES SHORT OF 1,000.

1949 Press director Charles G. Proffitt,

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procures a $100,000 grant from

1950 The second edition of the Columbia Encyclopedia

the Kresge Foundation to help support work on the Gazetteer.

THE SECOND EDITION PUBLISHES ON DECEMBER 4. IN THE TWENTYSEVEN REMAINING DAYS OF 1950, IT SELLS 17,975 COPIES.

1951 After changes in tax laws the Press transfers ownership and management of the University Bookstore to the University.

1951 The first volume of Roman Civilizations, edited by Napthali Lewis and Meyer Reinhold

j Creating thumb cuts by hand in The

1951

Columbia Encyclopedia, c. 1950.

Béla Bartók and Albert Lord’s Serbo-Croatian Folksongs

1952

The Press finishes revising and publishes the great geographical reference work The Columbia Lippincott Gazetteer of the World. THIS BOOK WAS REVISED IN 1998 AS THE COLUMBIA GAZETTEER OF THE WORLD.

j Columbia University Press staff around the meeting table, c. 1952.

j Columbia University Press staff, c. 1952.

1953 Viking Press is given the right to publish a condensed version of the Columbia Encyclopedia as the Columbia-Viking Desk Encyclopedia.

1953 The first volume of Salo W. Baron’s Social and Religious History of the Jews. The final, eighteenth volume will be completed in 1992.

j Columbia University Press staff working diligently to meet another tight deadline, c. 1952.

1954 The Press moves its inventory and the

1954

personnel of the stock department to

The Press receives its first grant for the

new university property at 136 South

publication of The Papers of Alexander

Broadway, Irvington-on-Hudson.

Hamilton. The Rockefeller Foundation

1954

makes a grant for the preparation of the manuscript, with the stipulation

The University adopts “Man’s Right to

that the funds needed for publication

Knowledge and the Free Use Thereof”

be obtained from another source.

as the theme of the bicentennial of King George II’s grant of a charter

1954

to what would eventually become

Press director Charles G. Proffitt,

Columbia University. The Press plans

negotiates with the University for an

two series in honor of the occasion: a

enlargement of the Irvington building.

two-volume history of the University, edited by Dwight C. Miner, and a set of

Plans are drawn up for a two-story

Bicentennial Editions and Studies, edited

addition to the building that will increase

by Jacques Barzun and exemplifying

storage space by 50 percent and provide

current Columbia scholarship.

office space for all accounting operations.

1955 Harold C. Syrett, professor of history at the University, starts preparing The Papers of Alexander Hamilton

1955 The Carnegie Corporation provides the Press with a grant for work on the addition of translations of Asian sources

for publication after Time Inc. gives

to the Records of Civilization translations.

the Press a grant for the project.

The grant and the subsequent publication

BY THE SPRING OF 1957, SYRETT AND HIS STAFF HAD COMPILED PHOTOSTATS OF 15,000 DOCUMENTS—ALMOST TWICE AS MANY AS EXPECTED BASED ON THE 1939 SURVEY.

of sourcebooks of Asian civilizations lay the groundwork for the development of the Press list in Asian studies and for the series Translations from the Asian Classics. TRANSLATIONS FROM THE ASIAN CLASSICS IS STILL ACTIVE TODAY AND INCLUDES 127 TITLES.

1956

The Anti-Stalin Campaign and

1956 A supplement to the Columbia

International Communism

Encyclopedia is released that includes sixty-three pages of illustrations.

THE ANTI-STALIN CAMPAIGN AND

This is the first time that the

INTERNATIONAL COMMUNISM, WHICH

Encyclopedia includes illustrations.

INCLUDED ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS OF NIKITA KHRUSHCHEV’S “SECRET SPEECH” DENOUNCING THE “CRIMES” OF STALIN,

WAS AN UNUSUAL FEAT OF EDITING

1957 The Press is awarded a grant from

AND PRODUCTION. A MERE IDEA WHEN

the Ford Foundation to support the

PROPOSED TO THE PRESS ON JULY 9, IT WAS

publication of books by younger scholars

A PAPERBOUND BOOK OF 352 PAGES BY

in the humanities and social sciences.

JULY 20 AND WAS PUBLISHED ON JULY 27.

1957 1958

The first of eight volumes of Geoffrey Bullough’s Narrative and

The first editions of Sources of

Dramatic Sources of Shakespeare

Japanese Tradition and Sources of Indian Tradition, edited by Wm. Theodore de Bary and designed for the

1959 Man, the State, and War, the first book

core course on Asian civilizations

by a young author, Kenneth N. Waltz

1960

The Press begins publishing Columbia

MAN, THE STATE, AND WAR HAS BEEN CONTINUOUSLY IN PRINT SINCE ITS FIRST

Paperbacks, reprints of distinguished

PUBLICATION AND REMAINS ONE OF THE

Columbia books. Before this, all

PRESS’S BEST-SELLING BOOKS OF ALL TIME.

Columbia University Press books

1959

were published in hardcover only.

Approaches to the Oriental

1960

Classics: Asian Literature and Thought in General Education, edited by Wm.

The first edition of Sources of Chinese Tradition, a perennially

Theodore de Bary, the first title in the Companions to Asian Studies series

best-selling textbook

1961 The first two volumes of The Papers of Alexander Hamilton. The work was completed in 1987 with the publication of the twenty-seventh volume.

1961 Press officers receive authorization from the Trustees to set up Columbia University Press, Ltd., a wholly owned United Kingdom subsidiary. Before this, all sales in the UK had been handled by Oxford

1961

University Press. In July the Press opens

The Press inaugurates the Translations

a joint office and salesroom with Chicago

from the Asian Classics series with Donald Keene’s The Major Plays of Chikamatsu and Burton Watson’s Records of the Grand Historian of China.

and Yale University Presses in London.

1963 The third edition of the

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Columbia Encyclopedia

1966 The Press, minus the staff already moved into the expanded Irvington

1967

warehouse, moves into a former women’s hospital building at 440 West 110th St.

The Press signs a contract with the University to begin publishing music, with substantial support provided through the

1968 The Open Economy: Essays on

Alice M. Ditson Fund. Columbia University

International Trade and Finance,

Music Press will publish contemporary music by composers affiliated with BMI;

edited by Peter B. Kenen and Roger

King’s Crown Music Press will publish

Lawrence, first title in the new series

works by those affiliated with ASCAP.

Columbia Studies in Economics

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS WAS THE FIRST AND, FOR DECADES, THE ONLY

1969 Robert G. Barnes, former vice

AMERICAN UNIVERSITY PRESS TO PUBLISH

president at Doubleday, becomes

NEW MUSIC. THE PRESS RECOGNIZED

the Press’s new director.

THAT, SINCE WWII, AN EVER-INCREASING NUMBER OF “SERIOUS” AMERICAN COMPOSERS FOUND THEIR LIVELIHOOD WITHIN THE WALLS OF A UNIVERSITY.

1970 The Press begins distributing

THE INAUGURAL PUBLICATION WAS

East European Monographs, the

GEORGE PERLE’S SERENADE NO. 1.

beginning of the Press's long history of distributing books by a number

1967

of international publishers.

The Press signs a contract with

1970

Time-Life Books for a twenty-fourvolume, color-illustrated “supermarket

The Press again moves offices, now

edition” of the Encyclopedia.

to the first two floors of McBain Hall, at 562 West 113th St.

1967 The estate of Simon Kayden provides

CUP with an endowment to publish

1971 The Press joins the American University

translations of literary works. The

Publishers Group, which handles

Alexander Pushkin Poetry and

sales in Great Britain and Europe for

Literature Fund is to this day the largest

a number of university presses.

endowment of its kind for the Press.

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1972 George L. Small’s The Blue Whale is awarded the National Book Award for

Columbia leaves the American University

the “most distinguished work” in the

Publishers Group and joins with

sciences by an American author.

Princeton University Press to set up a new company to sell books in the UK, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.

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1973 The Press uses computer programs for typesetting the sixth edition of Granger’s.

1979 Thomas Dublin’s Women at Work:

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The Transformation of Work and

1980 The Press completes the publication of The

Community in Lowell, Massachusetts,

Papers of Alexander Hamilton; the work

1826–1869 receives the Bancroft Prize.

receives the J. Franklin Matheson Prize of the American Historical Association.

1981

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The Press begins distributing English-language books published

John D. Moore, who joined the Press in

by the University of Tokyo Press.

1968 as editor for anthropology, philosophy, and social work, becomes director of CUP.

1983

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The Press launches the Gender and Culture series, edited by Nancy

The Press receives a gift of more than

K. Miller and Carolyn G. Heilbrun,

$150,000 from trustee Edwin Rickert,

which helps establish the Press as

the largest donation in its history.

a leading feminist publisher.

1983

1984

The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia,

The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia in

edited by Judith S. Levey

Large Print, the first general encyclopedia

and Agnes Greenhall

1985 Between Men: English Literature and

produced in a large-print format

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Male Homosocial Desire, by Eve Kosofsky

MID-1980s The Press begins to act as a sales agent

Sedgwick, in the Gender and Culture series

for the university presses at Virginia, Duke, and Massachusetts. Over time this

1985

business will grow significantly, enabling the Press to maintain its own sales force,

The Press launches its first fiction

and the group now includes the university

series, Twentieth-Century Continental

presses of Harvard and California.

Fiction, with novels by Juan Benet (Return to Region, translated by Gregory Rabassa) and other leading

1986

Iberian Spanish and French writers

The first of eight volumes of

not previously published in English.

The Documentary History of the Supreme Court of the United States,

1987 University of California Press joins the Columbia and Princeton University Presses sales consortium to sell their books in the UK, Europe, the Africa, and the Middle East.

1789–1800, edited by Maeva Marcus

1989 The Press signs an agreement with the

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1990

Microsoft Corporation to license the

Electronic publishing is inaugurated by

Concise Columbia Encyclopedia for

the Press when James Raimes, editorial director for reference, publishes The

Microsoft Bookshelf. Later, Microsoft will also license the Columbia Dictionary

Concise Columbia Encyclopedia online.

of Quotations and the New Columbia Encyclopedia. These licenses will

provide the Press with a significant

1991 The Press launches the Between Men–

revenue stream for many years.

Between Women series in gay and lesbian studies, establishing CUP as

1992

a pioneering publisher in the field.

The Press launches the Film and Culture

1991

series, edited by John Belton, with the publication of Henry Jenkins’s What Made

The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia

Pistachio Nuts? Early Sound Comedy and

is produced by Franklin Computer

the Vaudeville Aesthetic. The series, still

Company as the first handheld

active today, will publish some of the most

electronic encyclopedia.

important books in the field of film history.

1991 1992

The Press launches European Perspectives: A Series in Social Thought and Cultural

The Press signs an agreement with

Criticism, edited by Lawrence D.

John Wiley & Sons in Chichester,

Kritzman, with the publication of Julia

England, to warehouse its books for

Kristeva’s Strangers to Ourselves.

distribution in the UK and Europe.

1992 The first volume of the English translation of the complete Prison

1993 Microsoft presents The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia with color illustrations,

Notebooks by Antonio Gramsci, edited

animation, and sound on Microsoft

and translated by Joseph A. Buttigieg

Bookshelf II, a multimedia CD-ROM.

1993 The University Seminars inaugurate the Leonard Hastings Schoff Memorial Lecture Series with Sir David N. Cannadine’s The Rise and Fall of Class in Britain, which becomes the first book in the series when published by the Press in 1996.

1993 The Press enters into an agreement with Columbia University’s Academic Information Systems

j John D. Moore and George Rupp in conversation and celebrating the Press’s hundredth year, 1993.

to create online access to the Concise Columbia Encyclopedia.

1995 The Press purchases the list of Anima

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Publications, a small religion publisher

1997 The Press sponsors a three-part

in Pennsylvania. This acquisition brings

lecture series by David Mamet at the

to the list a number of important titles

Universityâ€™s Miller Theatre and Low

by Diana Eck, Thomas Berry, and others.

Library. Mamet addresses topics such as the clash of art and technology

1995

and the theater of everyday life. The Press publishes the resulting book,

A few years after purchasing its first

Three Uses of the Knife, in 1998.

computers, the Press begins editing on screen, using XyWrite software,

1997

which was spun off from a mainframe text-editing system. Columbia shares

William B. Strachan, previously

information and tips with other university

editor in chief at Henry Holt,

presses and begins series of panels at

joins the Press as director.

American Association of University Press

1997

meetings encouraging digital editing.

Columbia International Affairs Online, a

2000

joint venture between the Press and the Columbia Libraries, is launched. CIAO,

The Press moves from its offices in

developed with a grant of $360,000 from

McBain Hall to its current location

the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in 1996,

between Lincoln Center and Columbus

contains approximately 75,000 pages of

Circle at 61 West Sixty-Second Street.

full-text works, including working papers,

2001

conference proceedings, policy briefs,

The Press becomes the publisher for

economic indicators, books, journals, maps,

the Gutenberg-e program, a platform

and country data, as well as a section of

for the electronic publication of

selected links and resources on the web.

dissertations in the field of history

CIAO HAS RECENTLY BEEN UPGRADED

that grew out of an Andrew W. Mellon

AND CONTINUES TO BE A LEADING

Foundation grant of $980,000 to the

SOURCE OF INFORMATION IN THE FIELD.

American Historical Association.

2004

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2003 CUP begins distribution of English-

James D. Jordan, former director

language books published by the

of the Johns Hopkins University

Chinese University Press.

Press, becomes director of CUP.

2003 2007 The Press and Columbia Business School

The Press converts to using MS Word and an XML-first editing-to-typesetting

agree to collaborate on a new imprint,

stream, one of the first publishers

Columbia Business School Publishing.

of any kind to adopt XML at scale.

2008 The Press receives an endowment from

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the Sheng Yen Education Foundation

2009 The Press signs with Perseus Distribution

to support the publication of books

to warehouse its physical inventory and

in Chinese Buddhist studies.

with Perseus’s Constellation program to distribute CUP’s e-books. Later this year,

2008

the Press closes the Irvington warehouse

The Kenneth J. Arrow Lecture Series

and moves inventory to the Perseus

at Columbia University is founded

Distribution facility in Jackson, TN.

under the initiative of Joseph E. Stiglitz, with the agreement that the Press will

publish books based on the lectures.

2011 The MIT Press joins the European sales consortium, which is renamed

2012

the University Press Group.

Nancy Bernkopf Tucker provides the Press with an endowment to

support the publication of books

2014 Jennifer Crewe, former humanities editor

in U.S.–East Asian relations.

and editorial director, is made director of the Press. She is the first female director

2015

of an Ivy League university press.

The Press establishes the CUP

2015

Distinguished Book Award, sponsored by the office of the Provost. The annual prize

The Press establishes the Russian

is given to the most distinguished book by

Library series with a grant from

a Columbia faculty author published by the

Read Russia. The first books will

Press during the past two years. It is judged

be published in December 2016.

by the faculty Publication Committee.

2018 The Press receives an endowment from the Florence Gould Foundation to

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2016 The Press changes its status from a separately incorporated 501(c)3 company to a fully fledged unit of the University

support translations from the French.

within the office of the Provost.

j Columbia University Press staff, 2018.

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E VO LU T I O N O F T H E P R E SS LO G O ; T H E C U R R E N T LO G O ( B OT TO M R I G H T ) AS D E S I G N E D BY L I N DA S E CO N DA R I W I T H ST U D I O G R A N T