Background & History

The University of Pennsylvania Press was originally incorporated with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on 26 March 1890, and the imprint of the University of Pennsylvania Press first appeared on publications in the closing decade of the nineteenth century—among the earliest such imprints in America. One of the Press's first book publications, in 1899, was a landmark: The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study, by renowned black reformer, scholar, and social critic W.E.B. Du Bois, a book that remains on the Press's lists to this day. From the turn of the century to the late 1950s, the Press had published more than 700 books. Many of these focused on Pennsylvania and on American history and culture of the eighteenth century. In the mid-1960s the Press began to broaden the scope of its editorial interests to include European history, the social sciences, and the professions. A member of the Association of American University Presses, the Press now publishes upwards of 100 new books and journals a year, with an active backlist of more than 1000 titles. Professional and support staff numbers 27. Revenues are approximately $4 million.

Governance & Structure

The University of Pennsylvania Press, Inc. is a nonprofit Pennsylvania corporation wholly owned by the University of Pennsylvania, maintaining its own nonprofit tax status under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.

All of the Press's property, business, and operations are overseen by a Press board of trustees, who are appointed by the trustees of the University. The current Press board is composed of individuals who are prominent members of the business, banking, legal, publishing, philanthropic, and academic communities. In administrative and financial matters the director of the Press reports to the provost of the University. Editorially the Press is responsible to a distinguished board appointed by the president of the University from the faculty of the University. This faculty editorial board controls the Penn imprint, and its approval must be given before any work may be accepted for publication. Members of these boards serve without financial compensation.

Operations of the Press are distributed among four departments: In the Acquisitions Department the acquiring editors are responsible for finding, evaluating, selecting, and developing book manuscripts for publication. Members of the Editing and Production Department attend to the editing and design of all books and journals published by the Press and supervise their manufacture. Like almost all other book publishers, the Press has no printing facilities, instead purchasing type composition and manufacture under competitive contract. The Marketing Department handles all functions of selling and promoting books, both domestically and overseas. Sales representatives call on thousands of book wholesalers and retail bookstores throughout the country and around the world. Other staff specialists create advertising, prepare catalogues and direct mail brochures, arrange exhibits and publicity, submit books for review and award consideration, and negotiate bookclub adoptions.

All Penn Press books are available worldwide. Most international sales are handled through a network of sales agents headquartered in Bristol (UK), Toronto, and, for Asia, New York and Hawaii. The Press's books are stocked for promotion and distribution in the UK, Canada, Japan, Australia, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore. The Press actively sells translation rights to its books to foreign publishers. Export sales account for about 10 percent of the total.

Business and Administration provides general administrative and financial management for the Press. Encompassing the offices of the director and business manager, the department's services include rights and permissions management, order processing and fulfillment, customer service, data processing and royalty statements, billing and collections, credit management, and cash handling. This department is responsible as well for the management of revenue and expense budgets, maintenance of the physical plant, and administration of personnel matters. Inquiries about employment at the Press should be directed to the Business Manager.

Editorial Program

Penn is particularly well known for its books in American history, in European history and literary studies from late antiquity through the early modern period, in studio arts, and on international human rights issues. The Press has gained a leading position also in landscape architecture and garden history. By long tradition the Press has published with distinction works of contemporary ethnography, now focusing on ethnopolitical conflicts around the world. Current catalogues show more and more books in urban studies and Jewish studies. Future lists will increasingly feature books on international relations and in economics and business, disciplines that embody the ideal Ben Franklin espoused when he founded the University of Pennsylvania to provide an education that marries the theoretical with the practical.

Books published by the Penn Press regularly win prizes in their fields of scholarship. Many others successfully make the work of scholars and researchers accessible to readers beyond those with academic or professional interests. Since early in the last century Penn has published general books about Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the Delaware Valley. Semipopular books of high quality, these are published primarily for those who live and work in the mid-Atlantic region and for those who want to be informed visitors.

The acquiring editors actively solicit and commission manuscripts that promise books of note in subjects appropriate for the Penn Press editorial program. Submissions should be directed to the appropriate acquiring editor in the Acquisitions Department.

Board of Trustees


Barbara B. Aronson
  Partner
  Berger & Co.
Ronald J. Daniels, ex officio
  Provost
  University of Pennsylvania
Amy Gutmann, ex officio
  President
  University of Pennsylvania
Carolyn Payne Langfitt
  Trustee
  White Williams Foundation
Stephen J. Marmon
  Chairman & Managing Director
  Maidstone Capital Corporation
Washburn Oberwager
  President
  Scovill Holdings, Inc.
Mark B. O'Brien
  President & Chief Investment Officer
  O'Brien Greene & Co.
Franklyn L. Rodgers, interim chair
  Former Chairman
  Warner Publisher Services, Inc.
Stuart Teacher
  Publishing Consultant
Arnold Thackray
  President
  Chemical Heritage Foundation
Richard Vague
  Chairman and CEO
  Barclays Bank Delaware

Faculty Editorial Board


Michael Zuckerman, chair
  Professor of History
Roger D. Abrahams
  Rosen Professor of English, Emeritus
Nancy Bentley
  Professor of English
Erin Daly
  Professor of Law
  Widener University School of Law
Steven Hahn
  Nichols Professor of History
E. Ann Matter
  Professor of Religious Studies
Jean-Michel Rabaté
  Professor of English
Larry Silver
  Farquar Professor of Art History
Emily R. Steiner
  Assistant Professor of English
Richard M. Valelly
  Professor of Political Science
  Swarthmore College