History[edit]

Abingdon Press was begun in the early 1900s by the Methodist Church, with headquarters in New York City. The name of the imprint is a reference to the town of Abingdon, Maryland, location of the Methodist university Cokesbury College.^[2]


In 1923 the Methodist Episcopal Church, South adopted the name Cokesbury for its own publishing concern, with headquarters in Nashville, Tennessee.^[2] When the northern and southern branches of the Methodist Episcopal Church reunified in 1939, the name Abingdon-Cokesbury was chosen as the name of publishing house of the unitary Methodist Church and Nashville was chosen as the headquarters.^[2]


This name remained in use until 1954, when a return was made to the name Abingdon Press, with the church's retail division for its publishing enterprises assuming the name Cokesbury.^[2] In 1965 the joint Abingdon Press and the associated Cokesbury retail shops employed more than 2,000 people.^[3]