citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . august 2009 learn how and when to remove this template message new american library parent company penguin group founded 1948 founder victor weybright and kurt enoch country of origin united states headquarters location new york city imprints nal accent obsidian plume roc signet signet eclipse signet select official website nalauthors.com berkleysignetmysteries.com the new american library 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 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 . contents 1 history 1.1 20th century 1.2 acquisitions and mergers 2 21st century 3 imprints 4 notable authors 5 notes and references 6 external links 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 new american library of world literature was founded in 1948 1 by victor weybright and kurt enoch formally head of albatross books . enoch served as president of new american american library from 1947 1965 . 2 3 he later served as head of book publishing at 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 hard copy original publications 4 such as the immensely popular james bond 007 series written by ian fleming . nal also published new editions of classic works for example a shakespeare series which featured renowned scholars editors and translators ; many of these editions were oriented toward high school and college readership . these paperbound books included subjects in the humanities the arts and the sciences . it 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 . citation needed 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 . citation needed weybright commented thus i pointed out with some justification but certainly not as my basic argument that the mentor list was essential as part of the character and prestige of our company and an indispensable exhibit when our more daring fiction by faulkner farrell and caldwell was attacked by the censors . 5 new york university library received the nal archive as a gift from the nal in the spring of 1965 . 6 acquisitions and mergers edit nal witnessed several changes in ownership beginning in the 1960s . in 1960 times mirror of los angeles bought nal ; 7 however nal continued to operate autonomously within the mirror company and a management remain unchanged . in 1983 odyssey partners and ira j. hechler bought nal 8 from the times mirror company for over 50 million . at the time of the sale new american library had over 1 billion paperback books in print . 9 in 1985 new american library acquired e.p. dutton an independent hardcover and trade publisher . 8 during this period there was pressure for paperback publishers to add hardcover divisions . nal had started publishing hardcovers in 1980 with mixed success and determined that dutton would give them an edge in that space . 8 in 1987 the nal was reintegrated back into the penguin publishing company . 10 penguin had been purchased by pearson plc in 1970 . 21st century edit in 2013 pearson plc merged penguin with bertelsmann owned random house to form penguin random house . 11 new american library is currently part of the penguin publishing group where it is a sister imprint to the berkeley publishing group . in june 2015 it was announced by penguin that starting in fall of 2016 berkley would publish fiction titles while new american library would publish only non fiction titles . according to berkley nal publishing group president leslie gelbman this will delineate the two publishing lines and sharpen their publishing identities . 12 13 see also penguin books see also penguin random house imprints edit imprints past and present have included 8 meridian mentor mostly non fiction with the slogan good reading for the millions mentor omega featuring catholic philosophers mentor executive library for businesspeople . plume signet classics signet fiction signet science signet key for young readers ages 10 to 14 when they were original a part of penguin books signet and mentor correlated to penguin s original imprints of penguin and pelican . 1 notable authors edit arthur koestler flannery o connor george orwell 9 james joyce mickey spillane william faulkner notes and references edit a b people who read and write . timesmachine.nytimes.com . retrieved 2016 04 10 . mitgang herbert 1982 02 17 . kurt enoch 86 ; pioneer in paperback publishing . the new york times . issn 0362 4331 . retrieved 2016 04 10 . a b john budlong heads library of literature . timesmachine.nytimes.com . retrieved 2016 04 10 . publisher adds hardcover line . timesmachine.nytimes.com . retrieved 2016 04 10 . victor weybright the making of a publisher new york reynal and company 1967 p. 207 the fales library of nyu s guide to the new american library archive other sales mergers ; times mirror co. companies plan sales mergers . timesmachine.nytimes.com . retrieved 2016 04 10 . a b c d mcdowell edwin 1985 02 07 . e.p. dutton to be purchased by new american library . the new york times . issn 0362 4331 . retrieved 2016 04 10 . a b mcdowell edwin 1983 11 08 . times mirror is selling new american library . the new york times . issn 0362 4331 . retrieved 2016 04 16 . mcdowell edwin 1986 10 01 . penguin agrees to buy new american library . the new york times . issn 0362 4331 . retrieved 2016 04 12 . penguin random house announce merger . npr.org . retrieved 2016 04 10 . nal is merged into realigned berkley publishing group publishers lunch . publishers lunch . retrieved 2016 04 10 . penguin merges berkley nal . publishersweekly.com . retrieved 2016 04 10 . external links edit new american library signet onyx accent about nal at penguin group usa v t e penguin random house random house usa crown crown broadway harmony hogarth three rivers ten speed watson guptill knopf doubleday knopf doubleday everyman s library us pantheon schocken vintage random house ballantine bantam dell del rey dial modern library spectra villard children s beginner books golden information books on tape fodor s living language the princeton review prima games uk cornerstone hutchinson random house william heinemann ebury bbc books ebury del rey fodor s rider virgin books 90 % transworld bantam doubleday vintage publishing the bodley head chatto & windus harvill secker jonathan cape vintage canada mcclelland & stewart douglas gibson books tundra books new canadian library other companhia das letras 45 % penguin random house grupo editorial alfaguara penguin group uk dorling kindersley hamish hamilton ladybird penguin penguin classics puffin rough guides viking warne us alpha author solutions authorhouse iuniverse trafford xlibris dutton penguin putnam riverhead sentinel tarcher viking berkley publishing group ace berkley new american library jove plume roc children s dial young readers dutton children s firebird g. p. putnam s sons grosset & dunlap philomel price stern sloan puffin warne parents bertelsmann pearson plc companies portal books portal retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title new american library & oldid 744313799 categories book publishing companies based in new yorkpearson plcpenguin bookspenguin random housepublishing companies established in 1948hidden categories articles needing additional references from august 2009all articles needing additional referencesall articles with unsourced statementsarticles with unsourced statements from august 2009 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 fran aisfrysk edit links this page was last modified on 14 october 2016 at 12 41 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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