Viking Press
Viking Press was founded in New York City on the 1st of March 1925. Two men started it, Harold K. Guinzburg and George S. Oppenheimer. Its formal name today is Viking Penguin, and it is also listed as Viking Books. It is an American publishing company, and it now belongs to Penguin Random House. Its author list reaches from Hilary Mantel to Stephen King. Behind that list sit several puzzles. Why did the founders choose a ship as their emblem? Why did a house with such a list sell itself in the 1970s? How did a department for young readers become its best-known achievement? And what became of a series of scholarly editions that once sat beside the famous novels? The answers begin with a drawing.
The Viking ship that marks the house was drawn by Rockwell Kent. Both the name and the logo were picked as symbols. The founders wanted them to stand for enterprise, adventure and exploration in publishing. A ship under sail suited that idea well, since it suggests a crew heading for unmapped water. Over the decades the house gathered several imprints under that emblem. They include Viking Adult, Viking Children's Books, Viking Portable Library and Pamela Dorman Books. Viking Kestrel also belonged to the family as an imprint of the children's side. That spirit of risk would be tested in the middle of the 1970s, when the money ran short.
In 1975, Viking Press was sold to Penguin Books for $12 million. The Penguin Group acquired the house that same year. The reason was monetary difficulty. The source does not give a firm cause for those troubles, only speculation. One guess points to a shrinking juvenile market. Another points to the fact that Viking had no textbook division, which left it without that steady kind of publishing. The sale ended the house's life as an independent company, but the name and ship survived inside a larger group. The juvenile market blamed in that speculation was one the house had entered decades earlier, with a department of its own.
The Story About Ping was the first book published by a new department at Viking Press in 1933. The department was called Junior Books, and its editor was May Massee. It was later renamed Viking Children's Books. Its list came to include Corduroy, Make Way for Ducklings, The Outsiders, Pippi Longstocking and The Story of Ferdinand. In 1993 it added The Stinky Cheese Man, by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith. The paperbacks from this list are now published by Puffin Books, which also includes the Speak and Firebird imprints. The most recent change the record notes came in 2023, when Tamar Brazis was named vice president and publisher of Viking Children's Books.
Ten Newbery Medals and ten Caldecott Medals sit at the top of the tally for Viking's books. Below them come 27 Newbery Honors and 33 Caldecott Honors. One title that won is The Twenty-One Balloons, written and illustrated by William Pene du Bois. It appeared in 1947 and took the Newbery Medal for 1948. The house also holds one American Book Award, two Coretta Scott King Awards and three Batcheldor Honors. Five Christopher Medals complete the count. Two Margaret A. Edwards Awards went to authors, S. E. Hinton and Richard Peck.
The Viking Critical Library gave students a way to read a famous text alongside the commentary around it. Each title printed the work next to a selection of critical essays and contextual documents. Those documents included extracts from the author's other writing. The series follows the same plan as the Norton Critical Editions from W. W. Norton. It appeared only sporadically, in the late 1970s and again in the late 1990s. Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, edited by Chester G. Anderson in 1977, is the only title known to carry explanatory end notes. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, edited by John Clark Pratt in 1977, is out of print. So is On the Road, edited by Scott Donaldson in 1979. The mid-1990s brought John Clark Pratt's edition of The Quiet American and Robert Scholes's edition of Dubliners. Gerald Weales edited both The Crucible and Death of a Salesman in 1996. Kevin Hearle edited The Grapes of Wrath in 1997. The latest year in the list of titles is 1998, for Don DeLillo's White Noise, edited by Mark Osteen. The series has been dormant since then, though several titles remain in print.
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Common questions
When was Viking Press founded?
Viking Press was founded in New York City on the 1st of March 1925 by Harold K. Guinzburg and George S. Oppenheimer.
Who drew the Viking Press logo?
Rockwell Kent drew the Viking ship logo. The name and logo were chosen as symbols of enterprise, adventure and exploration in publishing.
When and why was Viking Press sold to Penguin?
Viking Press was sold to Penguin Books in 1975 for $12 million because of monetary difficulties. These were speculated to stem from a shrinking juvenile market and the lack of a textbook division.
What was the first book published by Viking Press for children?
The Story About Ping, published in 1933 under editor May Massee, was the first book from Viking Press's Junior Books department. The department was later renamed Viking Children's Books.
How many Newbery and Caldecott Medals have Viking Press books won?
Viking Press books have won 10 Newbery Medals and 10 Caldecott Medals. They have also earned 27 Newbery Honors and 33 Caldecott Honors.
What is the Viking Critical Library from Viking Press?
The Viking Critical Library offers academic editions that print a literary text alongside critical essays and contextual documents. It has been dormant since 1998, though several titles remain in print.
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9 references cited across the entry
- 1BookThe Encyclopedia of New York City: Second EditionKenneth T. Jackson et al. — Yale University Press — 1995
- 2JournalViking Press Is Sold To Penguin BooksMedia Source Inc. — 1975
- 3NewsViking Press Is Sold to Penguin BooksAlden Whitman — November 11, 1975