Routledge (/ˈraÊŠtlÉ›dÊ'/) is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals, & online resources in the fields of humanities and the sciences. The company publishes 1,800 journals & 2,000 new books each year and their backlist encompasses over 35,000 titles.
In 1998, Routledge became a subdivision and imprint of its former rival, Taylor & Francis Group, as a result of a £90 million acquisition deal from Cinven; a venture capital group which had purchased it two years previously for £25 million.
History
The firm originated in 1836, when Camden bookseller George Routledge published an unsuccessful guidebook, The Beauties of Gilsand with his brother-in-law W H (William Henry) Warne as assistant. In 1848 the pair entered booming market for selling inexpensive imprints of works of fiction to rail travellers, in the style of the German Tauchnitz family, which became known as the "Railway Library".
The venture was a success which was mainly due to the mass hysteria in the 1840s due to Railway Mania and it eventually led to Routledge, along with W H Warne's Brother Frederick Warne, to found the company, George Routledge & Co. in 1851. The following year in 1852, the company gained lucrative business though selling pirated reprints of Uncle Tom's Cabin, which allowed for it to be able to pay author Edward Bulwer-Lytton £20,000 for a 10-year lease allowing sole rights to print all 35 of his works including 19 of his novels to be sold cheaply as part of their "Railway Library" series.
The company was restyled as 1858 as Routledge, Warne & Routledge when George Routledge's son, Robert Warne Routledge, entered the partnership. Frederick Warne eventually left the company after the death of his brother W H Warne in May 1859 (died aged 37). Gaining rights to some titles, he founded Frederick Warne & Co in 1865, which became known for its Beatrix Potter books.
However, by 1902, the company was running close to bankruptcy, but, following a successful restructuring, was able to recover and began to acquire and merge with other publishing companies. These early 20th-century acquisitions and mergers brought with them lists of notable scholarly titles, and it is from 1912 onwards that Routledge & Kegan Paul, as the company name, became increasingly concentrated on and involved with the academic and scholarly publishing business. It was soon particularly known for its titles in the social sciences.
In 1985, Routledge & Kegan Paul joined with Associated Book Publishers (ABP), which was later acquired by International Thomson in 1987. Under Thomson's ownership, Routledge's name and operations were retained, and, in 1996, a management buyout financed by the European private equity firm Cinven saw Routledge operating as an independent company once again. Just two year later, Cinven and Routledge's directors accepted a deal for Routledge's acquisition by Taylor & Francis Group (T&F), with the Routledge name being retained as an imprint and subdivision. In 2004, T&F became a division within Informa plc after a merger. Routledge continues as a publishing arm and imprint under the T&F division, with a majority of its titles' issued as academic humanities and social sciences books.
People
The famous English publisher Fredric Warburg was a commissioning editor at Routledge during the early 20th century.
Routledge has published many of the greatest thinkers and scholars of the last hundred years, including Adorno, Einstein, Russell, Popper, Wittgenstein, Jung, Bohm, Hayek, McLuhan, Marcuse and Sartre.
Works
Encyclopaedias
Taylor and Francis closed down the Routledge encyclopedia division in 2006. Some of its publications were:
- Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy by Edward Craig (1998) in 10 volumes, but now online
- Encyclopedia of Ethics by Lawrence C. Becker and Charlotte B. Becker (2002) in three volumes.
- Routledge Encyclopedia of International Political Economy
- Encyclopedia of Paleontology by Ronald Singer (1987)
- Encyclopedia of language teaching and learning by Michael Byram (2001)
Encyclopedic publications of Europa Publications, actually published by Routledge:
- Europa World Year Book
- International Who's Who
- Europa World of Learning
See also
- List of Language Self-Study Programs
- Category:Routledge academic journals
- Category:Routledge books
Notes
References
External links
- Routledge
- Routledge â€" Psychology Press
- Routledge â€" Cavendish
- Routledge â€" Mental health imprint
- Routledge â€" Psychoanalysis arena
- Routledge Revivals: Humanities and Social Sciences reprints from the backlists of Routledge imprints
- Routledge â€" The International Who's Who
- Routledge â€" The Europa World of Learning
- Routledge â€" History of the Routledges and Their Origins