Before Whitman, was there a large, corporate conglomerate that published numismatic books?
Longacre
Posts: 16,717 ✭✭✭
I have not researched the Whitman site to learn the history of the company, but I think they have been around for a decent while. Whenever I buy a classic numismatic text, it seems that they were published by any number of publishing houses, rather than one corporate conglomerate which dominated the industry. Does anyone know if there was a single main numismatic publisher in the past, or is Whitman basically the first to go corporate with coin books for the masses?
Always took candy from strangers
Didn't wanna get me no trade
Never want to be like papa
Working for the boss every night and day
--"Happy", by the Rolling Stones (1972)
Didn't wanna get me no trade
Never want to be like papa
Working for the boss every night and day
--"Happy", by the Rolling Stones (1972)
0
Comments
B&M was also a big publisher of books until QDB left.
Whitman's obviously been around as long as the Blue and Red Books have, but it has been passed from corporate owner to corporate owner about as much as a box of Cracker Jacks over the years. In any event, I don't think they did much of any publishing beyond the Red and Blue Books until their current owners bought them a few years ago.
Most of the other Numismatic publishers, like Krause, have really only been around since perhaps the 1950s. (I don't think that anyone would have called either Whitman or Krause "conglomerates", anyway.)
Hewitt Brothers published the Numismatic Scrapbook and a series of small pamphlets starting in the 30s, but they sold their business to Coin World in the 70s.
Let's not forget the ANS, but I don't think anyone would use "masses" and ANS in a sentence!
Check out the Southern Gold Society
There were six other publishers in the board biz, too, including Oberwise & Co., Colonial Coin & Stamp Co. of New York, and Lincoln Printing Company of Los Angeles, owned by the Ritterbrand brothers.
Whitman was part of Western Publishing in Racine, Wisconsin. R.S. Yeoman got the company into coin boards. Kenneth Bressett came aboard in 1959 as an editor working on the Red Book. There was a Golden Age in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, with Yeoman, Bressett, & co. (including Neil Shafer and many other big names in the hobby) creating all sorts of books and products.
As early as 1959 more than 100,000 Red Books were being printed annually. The 1965 (18th) edition reached a peak of 1.2 million copies. That year the Red Book was ranked fifth on the list of best-selling nonfiction—ahead of Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People (at no. 6) and John F. Kennedy’s Profiles in Courage (no. 9).
By the 60th edition, collectors had purchased a total of well over 20 million copies. The Red Book is one of the best-selling nonfiction books of all time.
(DaveG, your estimate of 5,000 to 10,000 printed each year made me chuckle!
Today Whitman books are distributed in Barnes & Noble, Borders, and Books-A-Million (the nation's three largest book chains), as well as through other retailers, coin shops, numismatic book dealers, etc. But Whitman isn't the only numismatic publisher --- smaller houses are active and serve the hobby well, and of course there's a treasure trove of electronic publishing going on (web sites, blogs, bulletin boards, etc.). Good numismatic books have been self-published and have even gone the print-on-demand route (quite legitimate, and a far cry from the "vanity presses" of yesteryear). Hobby-organization publications are healthy, too, although they can always use new writers. If you haven't written an article for a hobby publication recently, why not do it now?
I remarked to myself, that Dentuck writes like a publisher!
Then I woke up some more and remembered that Dentuck is a publisher!
Maybe I need another wink of sleep!
I have to say I had no idea so many copies of the Red Book have been printed!
Just out of curiosity, how many copies of the 2007 edition were printed?
Check out the Southern Gold Society