THE 200 YEAR BUSINESS/ACADEMIC ORIGINS
OF THE EDWIN MELLEN PRESS

1802-1883 Issac Adams of Sandwich, New Hampshire. Adams invents the Adams Power Press, the most important nineteenth century innovation in book binding.
1866 Simon Richardson marries Flora [Hines], a freed slave. They establish The Worcester-Providence Coach Worcester-Providence Coach.
1860-1918 Edwin & Adele Adams-Mellen, of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Artists and philanthropists, they support Booker T. Washington in establishing the Tuskegee Institute.
1906-1957 Herbert Richardson II (Edwin Mellen’s son-in-law). He is the publisher of a newspaper in Palm Springs, California.
1932-2011   Herbert Richardson III. He establishes The Edwin Mellen Press, fulfilling his father’s publishing aspirations. He names the Press to honor his grandfather.

TABLE OF SIGNIFICANT EVENTS

1965 Young Harvard Professor Herbert Richardson, and Professor Jasper Hopkins (Minnesota), publish their first scholarly book with Harper’s in New York City. It is A Translation and Interpretation of the Treatises of St. Anselm of Canterbury.
1966-1974   Richardson works eight years as an academic editor at Harper’s.
1972 Richardson moves to Toronto and establishes a non-subsidy scholarly press.
1977 Professor Elizabeth Clark establishes an American office for The Edwin Mellen Press in Fredericksburg, Virginia.
1979 Professor Clark moves to Duke University and Mellen’s American office is relocated to Lewiston, New York.
1976-1982   The Edwin Mellen Press becomes the premier publisher of controversial research in the sociology of new religions.
1983 Professor Peter Beyer (Ottawa) becomes a Mellen editor and expands its publication program to encompass all areas of the humanities and social sciences.
1984 Mrs. Irene Miller computerizes Mellen’s business operations.
1985 Africa goes bankrupt and The Edwin Mellen Press is the only scholarly publisher to continue publishing books in African Studies. This has today made Mellen the largest publisher of non-white scholars of any academic press in North America.
1986 Dr. John Rupnow establishes the Mellen Print Room and Bindery. This allows Mellen to specialize in the manufacturing of sewn- bound and full-cloth covered library-quality books.
1987 The Edwin Mellen Press establishes its head office at the University of Wales under the direction of Professor D. Simon Evans - a leading Celtic scholar.
1988 The Edwin Mellen Press begins publishing books written in German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Hebrew, and Welsh.
1989 Mellen’s first major prize book: Medieval Music and Its Role in the Intellectual Climate of the University by Nancy Van Deusen.
1990 The Edwin Mellen Press publishes 150 new titles, surpassing the new title output of the University of Toronto Press.
1991 The Edwin Mellen Press merges with The Computer Bible, a publishing company founded in 1968 by Professors Arthur Baird and David Noel Freedman. (This was the first publishing program to specialize in the computer analysis of literary texts.)
1992 The 2nd Mellen major book prize: A.J. Klein by Rachel Brenner.
1993 Mellen establishes an editorial office in Salzburg, Austria by acquiring Salzburg Studies in British and American Literature.
1994 Mellen Poetry Press is established with Mrs. Patricia Schultz as the general editor. Since 1994, the Mellen Poetry Press has published over 200 volumes of original poetry.
1995 Mellen Print Room & Bindery replaces its offset press with digital presses, and adds a second press for full color printing.
1996 Dr. Semyon Gonshorek establishes a Mellen editorial office in Moscow, Russia. Since 1996, The Edwin Mellen Press has published over 200 titles in the Russian language.
1997 Mellen publishes the transcripts of The Tokyo War Crimes Trials (126 volumes), the largest project Mellen has ever undertaken.
1998 For the first time, the number of Mellen’s European authors is equal to the number of Mellen’s North American authors.
1999.2011 Annually, Mellen books win more major prizes. For example

  • Why the Irish Speak English, by Peter K. Fallon
  • The Four Branches of the Mabinogi, by Nikolai Tolstoy
  • Sprechstimme in Arnold Schoenberg, by Aidan Soder
  • The Sociology of Law: A Bibliography by Javier Trevino

2002 Mellen is now publishing 360 new titles each year (which is 1/3 more new titles than the largest American university press).
2003 After a fire, Mellen constructs a new 50,000 cubic foot warehouse in Lewiston, New York. (Mellen currently maintains an active inventory of over 5,000 titles.)
2005 Mellen publishes Richard II in four volumes. This is the first play in over 200 years to be convincingly attributed to Shakespeare.
2006 The Chronicle of Higher Education publishes a full front page story on the research of Mellen author Prof. Kenneth Westhues.
2007 Authors from China, South East Asia, and Australia now constitute over twenty percent of the new titles published by Mellen.
2008 The publication of the 32nd volume of The Mellen Opera Reference Index, compiled by Librarian Charles Parsons (Cincinnati), is lauded by Choice as "the most complete catalog available."
2009 Mellen builds an Art and Poetry Center to support the public performance of poetry published by its Mellen Poetry Press.
2011 Mellen publishes its 50th book written by a librarian. It also appoints to its staff its first professional MLS librarian to maintain its catalog and bibliography.