Dodd, Mead and Company was one of the pioneer publishing houses of the United States, based in New York City. Under several names, the firm operated from 1839 until 1990.
In 1839, Moses Woodruff Dodd (1813–1899) and John S. Taylor, at that time a leading publisher in New York,[1] formed the company of Taylor and Dodd as a publisher of religious books.[2] 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.
Frank Howard Dodd
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.[3] In 1876, Bleecker Van Wagenen became a member of the firm and the name was changed to Dodd, Mead and Company.[4][3][1]
The company was well known for the quality of its publications, including many books on American history and contemporary literature.[5] As a bookseller, the firm was a dealer and leading authority in rare books.[1]
As head of Dodd, Mead and Company, Frank Dodd established The Bookman in 1895, and The New International Encyclopedia in 1902. He was president of the American Publishers Association for a number of years. The firm built the Dodd Mead Building (1910) at the corner of Fourth Avenue and Thirtieth Street, and the 11-story building was heralded as creating a new trade center in New York City.[6][7]
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.[8]
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.[12] 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.[13]
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.[14] By the end of 1990 the company ceased publications.
^Tebbel, John, Between Covers: The Rise and Transformation of Book Publishing in America. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987, ISBN0-19-504189-5, p. 114.
^Tebbel, John, Between Covers: The Rise and Transformation of Book Publishing in America. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987, ISBN0-19-504189-5, pp. 209–210.
Ames, Gregory (1986). "Dodd, Mead and Company". Dictionary of Literary Biography. Vol. 49: American Literary Publishing Houses, 1638–1899. Detroit: Gale Research Co. pp. 126–130 – via Internet Archive.
