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Basic Books

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Basic Books
Basic Books
Parent companyHachette Books
Founded1952
Country of originUnited States
Headquarters locationNew York, New York
Official websitewww.basicbooks.com

Basic Books is a book publisher founded in 1952 and located in New York, now an imprint of Hachette Books. It publishes books in the fields of psychology, philosophy, economics, science, politics, sociology, current affairs, and history. Basic Books publishes new works in African and African-American studies under the Basic Civitas imprint.[1]

History

Basic Books originated as a small, Greenwich Village–based book club marketed to psychoanalysts. Arthur Rosenthal took over the book club in 1950, and under his ownership it soon began producing original books, mostly in the behavioral sciences. Early successes included Ernest Jones’ The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud, as well as works by Claude Lévi-Strauss, Jean Piaget and Erik Erikson. Irving Kristol joined Basic Books in 1960, and helped Basic to expand into the social sciences. Harper & Row purchased the company in 1969, by which time Basic was already renowned for producing intellectual books which appealed to both academic and trade markets.[2]

In 1997, HarperCollins announced that it would merge Basic Books into its trade publishing program, effectively closing the imprint. That same year, Basic was purchased by the newly created Perseus Books Group.[3]

Authors

Basic's list of authors includes:

References

  1. ^ "Basic Books - About Us". Basic Books. Retrieved 12 October 2014.
  2. ^ Basic Books: A History, 1950-2000 (New York: Basic Books, 2000).
  3. ^ Doreen Carvajal (August 22, 1997). "HarperCollins Selling Basic Books Unit to Venture Capital Firm". New York Times.
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