founded 1941 ; 75 years ago 1941 founder hayward cirker and blanche cirker country of origin united states headquarters location mineola new york publication types books sheet music official website www.doverpublications.com dover publications also known as dover books is an american book publisher founded in 1941 by hayward cirker and his wife blanche . it primarily publishes reissues books no longer published by their original publishers . these are often but not always books in the public domain . the original published editions may be scarce or historically significant . dover republishes these books making them available at a significantly reduced cost . contents 1 classic reprints 2 history 3 quality 4 references 5 external links classic reprints edit dover is well known for its reprints of classic works of literature classical sheet music and of public domain images from the 18th and 19th centuries . dover also publishes an extensive collection of mathematical scientific and engineering texts . it often targets its reprints at a niche market such as wood working . citation needed most dover reprints are facsimiles by photo process of the originals retaining the original pagination and typeset sometimes with a new introduction . dover will usually add new and more colorful cover art to its paper bound editions . they retitle some books to make them more in line with modern usage and categorization . for example the book woodward s national architect was retitled a victorian housebuilder s guide . citation needed history edit the cirkers started the business selling remaindered textbooks by mail from their apartment in queens new york city . 1 the company published its first book tables of functions with formulas and curves when the german copyright was voided by the united states as a result of world war ii . the book was an unexpected success and established the dover business model of publishing esoteric works at a low price . one of dover s best sellers was albert einstein s the principle of relativity which einstein reluctantly agreed to republish despite his concerns that it was outdated . dover was influential in transforming the paperback book market . in 1951 it issued some of the earliest standard sized paperbacks a format that became known as a trade paperback . 2 since the 1960s the vast majority of dover s titles have been paper bound books of various sizes . dover paperbacks were noted for their quality of manufacture see below unlike most paperbacks which were held together with glue and subject to page drop out . beginning in the 1950s dover also issued a series of listen & learn language courses prepared primarily using teachers from columbia university . 3 for a time dover also published a catalog of lp phonograph records . 4 some such as selected recordings of schubert s solo and chamber works featuring pianist friedrich w hrer were reissues of earlier monaural releases from other labels . noteworthy among dover s original issues was an extensive series documenting pianist beveridge webster in literature ranging from beethoven s hammerklavier sonata to the second piano sonata by roger sessions . dover s foray into recordings however was not as successful as its core business of book republication and the company eventually abandoned it . starting in the 1990s dover has published a specialized line of low cost reprints of public domain literature known as dover thrift editions which are generally priced at us 5 or less . 5 they also have several lines of foreign language books . hayward cirker died in 2000 at the age of 82 . 6 in that same year dover publications was acquired by courier corporation . 7 courier was acquired by rr donnelley in 2015 . 8 quality edit early dover books were noted for their quality . on the back of these paperbacks dover wrote we have made every effort to make this the best book possible . our paper is opaque with minimal show through ; it will not discolor or become brittle with age . pages are sewn in signatures in the method traditionally used for the best books and will not drop out as so often happens with paper backs held with glue . books open flat for easy reference . the binding will not crack or split . this is a permanent book . 9 references edit history of dover the last paperback revolutionary stephen walker travel resources an annotated guide 2009 the publisher s listen & learn series teaches language through cassette and manual mono stereo at a low price publisher selling books for a buck hayward cirker 82 who made dover a paperback powerhouse courier corp. will acquire dover publications for 39m . courier corp. takes 261m rr donnelley offer over rival acquisition bid smith t. sundara row . edited and revised by wooster woodruff beman and david eugene 1900 . geometric exercises in paper folding 1966 reprint ed . . new york dover publications . p. back cover . isbn 0 486 21594 6 . andrea olmstead home page andrea olmstead roger sessions discography dover publications inc. international directory of company histories . the gale group 2006 . dover publications . official website . courier corporation . official website . external links edit official website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title dover publications & oldid 711948515 categories book publishing companies based in new yorkpublic domainpublishing companies established in 1941american record labelsclassical music record labelshidden categories all articles with unsourced statementsarticles with unsourced statements from october 2015 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages catal espa olfran aisnederlands portugu s edit links this page was last modified on 25 march 2016 at 22 30 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view