Happy anniversary, IU Press! What’s next?

Celebrating its 50th anniversary on the Bloomington campus this year, IU Press was envisioned by Herman B Wells. The late chancellor and president of IU founded IU Press in 1950 and named Bernard Perry as its first director.

IU Press has grown into one of the top 10 university presses among the 90 such publishers in the country, despite its simple beginnings in a single office in Kirkwood Hall. It is known internationally as a leading publisher specializing in the humanities and social sciences.

Now headed by Peter-John Leone, IU Press is a not-for-profit $8 million-a-year enterprise, which produces more than 150 new books annually, mostly of scholarly and cultural nature. It also publishes 13 journals and maintains a backlist of 1,800 titles.

Leone, who came to IU in 2000 from Cambridge University Press, expects to lead IU Press into what he calls a digital-plus-print model of publishing during the next five years. Many of its more scholarly and special interest books would go on line, a development that would be of particular benefit to researchers.

IU Press is financed primarily through sales with modest support from gifts and grants through outside sources. IU Press books have won many awards for scholarly merit and design, including two National Book Awards, three Herskovits Awards in African studies and several National Jewish Book Awards.

Did you know?

• The IU Press’ best selling book is Metamorphoses, by Ovid, translated by Rolfe Humphries, and published in 1955.

• IU Press is the second-largest public university press in terms of titles and income level.

• A surprise performer was Beyond the Brink with Indiana, a book about IU’s 1987 NCAA championship basketball season, written by former Bloomington Herald-Times sports editor Bob Hammel.

http://iupress.indiana.edu/