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- Attribution History

Years in Operation: 1927 - ?

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United States Web Site: http://www.randomhouse.com/ Brands: 24 Indicia Publishers: 27 Series: 352 Printings: 908 (974 Issues) Disclose

Notes: IMPORTANT: Alfred A. Knopf and Pantheon both maintain editorial independence from their parent Random House. Series for those imprints should be set up under their respective publisher records, not under Random House.

Random House was founded in 1927 by Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer, two years after they acquired the Modern Library imprint from publisher Horace Liveright, which reprints classic works of literature. Cerf is quoted as saying, "We just said we were going to publish a few books on the side at random," which suggested the name Random House.

American publishers Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. and Pantheon Books were acquired by Random House in 1960 and 1961, respectively; works continue to be published under these imprints with editorial independence.

In 1965, RCA bought Random House as part of a diversification strategy. Random House acquired the paperback book publisher Ballantine Books in 1973. RCA sold Random House to Advance Publications in 1980. In 1988, Random House acquired Crown Books. In 1998, Bertelsmann AG bought Random House and merged it with Bantam Doubleday Dell. In 2008, Random House restructured and created three divisions--Random House Publishing Group, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group and Crown Publishing Group. In October 2012, Bertelsmann entered into talks with rival conglomerate Pearson plc, over the possibility of combining their respective publishing companies, Random House and Penguin Group. The merger was completed on July 1, 2013 and the new company is Penguin Random House. In October 2018, Penguin Random House merged two of its most known publishing lines, Random House and the Crown Publishing Group. The two lines retain their distinct editorial identities.

The publisher's main office in the United States is located at 1745 Broadway in Manhattan, in the Penguin Random House Tower. Earlier addresses were 457 Madison Avenue, New York 22, NY; 20 East 57th Street, New York 22, NY; and 201 East 50th Street, New York, NY 10022.

Random House, Inc. maintains several independently managed subsidiaries around the world:

The Random House Group in the UK, based in London. The Group comprises five publishing companies: Cornerstone Publishing, Vintage Publishing, Ebury Publishing, Random House Children's Publishers UK and Transworld Publishers, with more than 40 diverse imprints.

Verlagsgruppe Random House was established after Bertelsmann's 1998 acquisition of Random House, grouping its German imprints (until then operating as Verlagsgruppe Bertelsmann). With Bertelsmann acquiring full ownership of Penguin Random House in April 2020, Verlagsgruppe Random House is being reintegrated with the main Penguin Random House company.

Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial is Random House's Spanish-language division, targeting markets in Spain and South and Central America. It is headquartered in Barcelona with locations in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Uruguay, and the United States.

Random House of Canada was established in 1944 as the Canadian distributor of Random House Books. In 1986 the company established its own indigenous Canadian publishing program that has become one of the most successful in Canadian history. Does this data need corrections? Become an editor.