New American Library
The New American Library (also known as NAL) is an American publisher based in New York, founded in 1948. Its initial focus was affordable paperback reprints of classics and scholarly works as well as popular and pulp fiction, but it now publishes trade and hardcover titles. It is currently an imprint of Penguin Random House; it was announced in 2015 that the imprint would publish only nonfiction titles.
Parent company
1948
New York City, New York, U.S.
History[edit]
20th century[edit]
New American Library (NAL) began life as Penguin U.S.A. and as part of Penguin Books of England. Because of complexities of exchange control and import and export regulations—Penguin made the decision to terminate the association, and the company was renamed the New American Library of World Literature in 1948[1] when Penguin Books' assets (excluding the Penguin and Pelican trademarks) were bought by Victor Weybright and Kurt Enoch (formerly head of Albatross Books).
Enoch served as president of New American Library from 1947 to 1965.[2][3] He later served as head of Book Publishing at Times Mirror and then stepped down to Vice-President when John P. R. Budlong became president of New American Library in 1965.[3]
NAL's productions were not limited to softbound reprints. Original works of mystery, romance, and adventure proved to be profitable and popular. In 1963 the company began publishing original publications in hardback format,[4] such as the immensely popular James Bond "007" series written by Ian Fleming. NAL also published new "quality" paperback editions of classic works—for example, a Shakespeare series—which featured renowned scholars, editors, and translators. Many of those editions were oriented toward a high school and college readership. Those paperbound books included subjects in the humanities, the arts, and the sciences.
NAL also published at least two notable "magazines in book form": New World Writing in the 1950s and early 1960s, and New American Review in the latter 1960s and early 1970s (which then moved on to other publishers as American Review).
NAL enjoyed great success: by 1965, its Mentor and Signet books annually sold over 50 million volumes. In 1956 NAL reported that "over 3 million copies" of the Signet Books edition of From Here to Eternity had been sold.[5]
The McCarthy era of the 1950s is notorious for its attacks upon communism and communistic influences in American life, and the object of federal investigations and trials was to eliminate this perceived threat and extinguish any and all communistic elements. NAL became involved with the censorship trials when certain books were deemed inflammatory and subsequently banned. Victor Weybright was asked to testify before a 1952 House Committee that examined pornography. Rather than accept government restrictions, Weybright endorsed a self-regulated censorship policy on the part of publishing companies. Weybright commented thus:
Imprints past and present have included the following:[9]