{{Short description|Former American book publishing company}} {{Use American English|date=December 2022}} {{Use mdy dates|date=August 2023}} {{Infobox publisher | name = E. P. Dutton | image = Epdutton.png | caption = Printer's mark {{circa|1895}} | parent = Penguin Group (Penguin Random House) | status = | traded_as = | predecessor = | founded = Boston, Massachusetts ({{start date|1852}}) | founder = Edward Payson Dutton | successor = | country = United States | headquarters = New York City | distribution = | keypeople = | publications = Books | topics = | genre = | imprints = | revenue = | owner = | numemployees = | website = {{official website|penguin.com/dutton-overview}} }}

'''E. P. Dutton''' is an American book publishing company. It was founded as a book retailer in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1852<ref>{{cite news |title=E. P. Dutton Marks its 100th Birthday; Book Concern Starts Second Century Today by Publishing Literary History Volume |work=The New York Times |date=January 4, 1952}}</ref> by Edward Payson Dutton. Since 1986, it has been an imprint of Penguin Group.

==Creator== thumb|left|Edward Payson Dutton

'''Edward Payson Dutton''' (January 1, 1831 in Keene, New Hampshire<ref name=Marquis1902>[https://archive.org/details/whoswhoinamerica02marq/page/330/mode/2up DUTTON, Edward Payson]; p. 330; in ''Who's Who in America'' (1901–1902 edition); via archive.org</ref> – 1923) was a prominent American book publisher.

In 1852, Dutton founded the E. P. Dutton bookselling company in Boston, Massachusetts. The business sold fiction and non-fiction, and within a short time expanded into the selling of children's literature. In 1864, he opened a branch office to sell books in New York City and in 1869 moved his company's headquarters there and entered the book publishing business. From 1888 onward, he started working with Ernest Nister. In 1906, Dutton struck what proved to be a significant deal with the English publishing company of J. M. Dent to be the American distributor of the Everyman's Library series of classic literature reprints.

Edward Dutton died in 1923, aged 92, but his company continued to flourish and today is an imprint of the Penguin Group.

==History== Dutton expanded to New York City in 1864, where it began publishing religious books. In 1906, Dutton made a deal with English publishing company J. M. Dent to be the American distributor of the Everyman's Library series of classic literature reprints.

John Macrae joined the company in 1885 as an office boy, and in 1923 was named president. In 1928, the publishing and retail divisions were split into two separate businesses with Macrae acquiring the publishing side, operating as E. P. Dutton and Company, Inc.

It published children's books under the Unicorn imprint, with some books published in the 1990s. Dutton Children's Books continues today.

In 1975, Dutton was acquired by the Dutch publisher Elsevier.<ref>{{cite news |work=The New York Times |title=Elsevier Reaches Dutton Merger Accord |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1975/04/12/archives/elsevier-reaches-dutton-merger-accord.html |date=April 12, 1975 |issn=0362-4331 |access-date=January 20, 2018}}</ref> The following year, Dutton bought Hawthorn Books from W. H. Allen & Co.<ref>{{cite book |last=Tebbel |first=John William |url=http://archive.org/details/historyofbookpub0004tebb |title=A history of book publishing in the United States |date=1972 |publisher=R. R. Bowker Co. |location=New York |pages=318–319 |isbn=9780835204897 |author-link=John William Tebbel |access-date=December 22, 2019}}</ref> Dutton lost money under Dutch ownership, and the company was sold to the buyout firm Dyson-Kissner-Moran in 1981. The paperback publisher New American Library acquired Dutton in 1985.<ref>{{cite news |work=The New York Times |last=McDOWELL |first=EDWIN |title=E.P. Dutton to Be Purchased by New American Library |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/02/07/books/ep-dutton-to-be-purchased-by-new-american-library.html |issn=0362-4331 |access-date=January 20, 2018 |date=February 7, 1985}}</ref>

New American Library was acquired by Penguin Group in 1986, and split into two imprints: Dutton and Dutton Children's Books.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/10/01/garden/penguin-agrees-to-buy-new-american-library.html |last=McDowell |first=Edwin |title=PENGUIN AGREES TO BUY NEW AMERICAN LIBRARY |work=The New York Times |date=October 1986 |access-date=December 2, 2018}}</ref> Dutton is now a boutique imprint within Penguin Group, publishing approximately 40 books for adults per year, half of them fiction and half non-fiction. After the acquisition by Penguin, books to which Penguin acquired the rights as part of the acquisition of Dutton were published in paperback under the imprint Puffin Unicorn (because Puffin has been the longtime paperback imprint for the Penguin Group). Penguin merged with Random House to form Penguin Random House in 2013.

In 2017, sister imprint Blue Rider Press was closed and its books were moved to Dutton.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/74105-prh-closing-the-blue-rider-imprint.html|title=PRH Closing the Blue Rider Imprint|first=Jim|last=Milliot |website=PublishersWeekly.com}}</ref>

==Book series== * Dutton Obelisk<ref>{{Cite news|last=Appelbaum|first=Judith|date=June 12, 1983|title=Paperback Talk; Revivals: Plans and Progress|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/06/12/books/paperback-talk-revivals-plans-and-progress.html|access-date=June 5, 2021|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> * Dutton Paperbacks<ref>[http://www.publishinghistory.com/dutton-paperbacks.html Dutton Paperbacks (E. P. Dutton) – Book Series List], publishinghistory.com. Retrieved April 19, 2018.</ref> * Everyman's Library<ref>[http://www.everymanslibrarycollecting.com/index.html Collecting Everyman's Library (1906–78)], everymanslibrarycollecting.com. Retrieved April 19, 2018.</ref> * Studio Vista/Dutton Pictureback<ref>[https://www.publishinghistory.com/studio-vista-dutton-picturebacks.html Studio Vista | Dutton Picturebacks – Book Series List], publishinghistory.com. Retrieved August 27, 2023.</ref><ref>[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11912254-modern-sculpture Modern Sculpture (Studio Vista / Dutton Pictureback) by Alan Bowness], goodreads.com. Retrieved August 27, 2023.</ref> * Sunrise Book<ref>[https://www.worldcat.org/search?q=%22Sunrise+Book%22+%2B+%22E.+P.+Dutton%22&limit=10&offset=1&orderBy=publicationDateAsc "Sunrise Book" + Dutton], worldcat.org. Retrieved August 27, 2023.</ref> * Told to the Children Series<ref>[https://search.worldcat.org/title/17316349 Stories of Roland : told to the children], worldcat.org. Retrieved 9 January 2025.</ref> * Unicorn Books<ref>[http://www.publishinghistory.com/unicorn-books-e-p-dutton.html Unicorn Books (E. P. Dutton) – Book Series List], publishing history.com. Retrieved May 24, 2018.</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

==Further reading== * Henry C. Smith, ''Seventy-Five Years, or the Joys and Sorrows of Publishing and Selling Books at Duttons'', New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1927.

==External links== * [https://www.penguin.com/dutton-overview/ Dutton imprint page at Penguin USA] * [https://library.syr.edu/digital/guides/e/ep_dutton.htm E. P. Dutton & Company, Inc. Records - An inventory of its records at Syracuse University] * [https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/search.jsp?Erp=20&N=38537+38533+37910+33398+4288205036&view=grid Children's books by E. P. Dutton] at Toronto Public Library

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Dutton, E.P.}} Category:E. P. Dutton Category:Book publishing companies of the United States Category:Publishing companies established in 1864 Category:Publishing companies established in 1852 Category:1852 establishments in Massachusetts