Parent company Simon & Schuster Publication types Books Parent organization Simon & Schuster Founded 1959 | Country of origin United States Fiction genres Children's literature Founder Alfred A. Knopf, Jr. Fiction genre Children's literature | |
 | ||
Official website simonandschusterpublishing.com/atheneum/ Headquarters location New York City, New York, United States | ||
Atheneum Books was a New York City publishing house established in 1959 by Alfred A. Knopf, Jr., Simon Michael Bessie and Hiram Haydn. Simon & Schuster has owned Atheneum properties since its acquisition of Macmillan in 1994 and it created Atheneum Books for Young Readers as an imprint for children's books in the 2000s.
History
Alfred A. Knopf, Jr. left his family publishing house Alfred A. Knopf and created Atheneum Books in 1959 with Simon Michael Bessie (Harpers) and Hiram Haydn (Random House). It became the publisher of Pulitzer Prize winners Edward Albee, Charles Johnson, James Merrill, Mona Van Duyn and Theodore H. White. It also published Ernest Gaines' first book Catherine Carmier (1964). Knopf personally recruited editor Jean E. Karl to establish a Children's Book Department in 1961.
Atheneum merged with Charles Scribner's Sons to become The Scribner Book Company in 1978. The acquisition included Rawson Associates. Scribner was acquired by Macmillan in 1984. Macmillan was purchased by Simon & Schuster in 1994.
In the 2000s, the Simon & Schuster imprint Atheneum Books for Young Readers has published the popular May Bird fantasy series for young adults, inaugurated by May Bird and the Ever After (2005), and the Olivia series of picture books featuring Olivia the pig (from 2000). The Higher Power of Lucky won the 2007 Newbery Medal. In a 2007 online poll, the National Education Association named Bunnicula: A Rabbit-Tale of Mystery one of its Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children.