Columbia University Press
Columbia University Press is Columbia University's academic publisher, founded in New York in 1893 and known for The Columbia Encyclopedia and its Sources of Asian tradition anthologies.
- Editions tracked
- 34
- First editions
- 20
- Books
- 33
- Years
- 1902 to 2015
About Columbia University Press
Columbia University Press is the university press of Columbia University in New York City, founded in 1893 and one of the oldest and largest academic presses in the United States.
Its certificate of incorporation set out a purpose of promoting the study of economic, historical, literary, scientific and other subjects. Its early books leaned towards politics, but the press became best known for reference works. An editorial department formed in 1928 produced The Columbia Encyclopedia, a one-volume English-language encyclopedia first issued in 1935, and in the 1940s the reference programme grew to include Granger's Index to Poetry and The Columbia Gazetteer of the World.
Other long-running projects include anthologies of Asian civilisation such as Sources of Chinese Tradition (1960, revised 1999), Geoffrey Bullough's multivolume Narrative and Dramatic Sources of Shakespeare, The Papers of Alexander Hamilton and The Letters of Ralph Waldo Emerson. It is also credited as the first American university press to publish music.
The press moved into digital publishing with Columbia International Affairs Online (1998) and acquired the British film-studies publisher Wallflower Press in 2011. It now issues about 200 new titles a year across the humanities, social sciences and sciences.
We have not yet written the guide to Columbia University Press's first-edition conventions. Until we do, check each book's own page: we list its points where we know them. Know how Columbia University Press marked its firsts? Tell us.
Published by Columbia University Press
Frequently asked questions
How many Columbia University Press books does MyVolumes track?
We track 34 editions published by Columbia University Press, 20 of them first editions, across 33 books.
Where these facts come from
- Columbia University Press, Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
- About, Columbia University Press (cup.columbia.edu)
- Columbia Encyclopedia, Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
Every fact on this page was checked against the sources listed. Checked 19 October 2026. Reviewed by Harriet Ellis; read how we check facts.