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Viking Press

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Viking Press
Parent companyPenguin Random House
StatusActive
Founded1925; 99 years ago (1925)
FoundersHarold K. Guinzburg
George Oppenheimer
Country of originUnited States
Headquarters locationNew York City
Key peopleBrian Tart (president)
Kenneth Wright (Children's publisher)
Imprints
  • Viking Kestrel
  • Viking Adult
  • Viking Children's Books
  • Viking Portable Library
Official websitepenguin.com/vikingbooks

Viking Press (formally Viking Penguin, also listed as Viking Books) is an American publishing company owned by Penguin Random House. It was founded in New York City on March 1, 1925, by Harold K. Guinzburg and George S. Oppenheimer[1] and then acquired by the Penguin Group in 1975.[2][3]

Imprints

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  • Viking Kestrel
  • Viking Adult, who got in legal trouble in 1946 due to John Steinbeck's bold eulogy, and fell out of public favor in 1947[clarification needed]
  • Viking children's Books
  • Viking Portable Library
  • Pamela Dorman Books

Viking Children's

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In 1933, Viking Press founded a department called Junior Books to publish children's books. The first book published was The Story About Ping in 1933 under editor May Massee. Junior Books was later renamed Viking Children's Books. Viking Kestrel was one of its imprints.

Its books have won the Newbery and Caldecott Medals, and include such books as The Twenty-One Balloons, written and illustrated by William Pene du Bois (1947, Newbery medal winner for 1948), Corduroy, Make Way for Ducklings, The Stinky Cheese Man by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith (1993), The Outsiders, Pippi Longstocking, and The Story of Ferdinand. Its paperbacks are now published by Puffin Books, which includes the Speak and Firebird imprints. In 2023, Tamar Brazis was named v-p and publisher of Viking Children's Books.[4]

Viking Critical Library

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The Viking Critical Library offers academic editions of literary texts. Like W. W. Norton's Norton Critical Editions, all titles print the text alongside a selection of critical essays and contextual documents (including relevant extracts from the author's oeuvre). The series, which only saw sporadic publications in the late '70s and late '90s, has been dormant since 1998, with no new titles released since then. However, a number of existing titles remain in print.

Titles
Author Title Editor Year published Notes
Don DeLillo White Noise Mark Osteen 1998 .
Graham Greene The Quiet American John Clark Pratt 1996
James Joyce Dubliners Robert Scholes 1996
James Joyce Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man Chester G. Anderson 1977 The only title known to include explanatory end notes.
Ken Kesey One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest John Clark Pratt 1977 Out of print.
Jack Kerouac On the Road Scott Donaldson 1979 Out of print.
Arthur Miller The Crucible Gerald Weales 1996
Arthur Miller Death of a Salesman Gerald Weales 1996
John Steinbeck The Grapes of Wrath Kevin Hearle 1997

Notable authors

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Notable editors

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Awards

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  • 10 Newbery Medals
  • 10 Caldecott Medals
  • 27 Newbery Honors
  • 33 Caldecott Honors
  • 1 American Book Award
  • 2 Coretta Scott King Awards
  • 3 Batcheldor Honors
  • 5 Christopher Medals
  • 2 Margaret A. Edwards Awards for authors S. E. Hinton and Richard Peck

References

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  1. ^ Kenneth T. Jackson; Lisa Keller; Nancy Flood (1995). The Encyclopedia of New York City: Second Edition. New York City: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0300055368.
  2. ^ Egli, ed. (1975). "Viking Press Is Sold To Penguin Books". School Library Journal. 22 (4). New York City: Media Source Inc.: 16.
  3. ^ Whitman, Alden (November 11, 1975). "Viking Press Is Sold to Penguin Books". The New York Times. New York City. Retrieved May 28, 2020.
  4. ^ Kantor, Emma. "Brazis, Santopolo promoted at Penguin Young Readers". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved March 6, 2024.

Further reading

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  • Bean, Martha Sue. A History and Profile of the Viking Press, Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Theses, 1969.
  • "Viking Press, Viking Penguin", Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 46, pp. 365-368.
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