Coward-McCann
Coward-McCann was a New York publisher founded in 1928, part of Putnam from 1936, which first published The Price of Salt and the US edition of The Talented Mr. Ripley.
- Editions tracked
- 40
- First editions
- 34
- Books
- 40
- Years
- 1928 to 1992
Coward-McCann is a publisher based in New York City. We track 40 editions it published between 1928 and 1992, 34 of them first editions across 40 books. Each book lists its first edition and the points that identify it.
About Coward-McCann
Coward-McCann was a New York trade publisher founded in 1928 by Thomas Coward and James McCann, both formerly of Bobbs-Merrill, and is remembered as the first American publisher of Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955) and the picture book Millions of Cats (1928).
In 1933 the firm took over the publishing department of Brentano's, and in 1936 it became an autonomous division of G. P. Putnam's Sons. Millions of Cats, by Wanda Gág, came out in its first year and won a Newbery Honor in 1929. In 1952 Coward-McCann published Highsmith's The Price of Salt in hardback under the pen name Claire Morgan, followed by the first US edition of The Talented Mr. Ripley on 30 November 1955.
John Geoghegan joined as editor-in-chief in 1959, became president in 1961 and later chairman, and the company was renamed Coward, McCann & Geoghegan. He and the literary scout Lena Wickman are credited with discovering John le Carré. Geoghegan resigned in 1981, complaining of a business-school mentality in publishing. Putnam kept the name as an imprint into the 1980s; Putnam itself merged with Penguin in 1996, and the combined group became part of Penguin Random House in 2013.
We have not yet written the guide to Coward-McCann's first-edition conventions. Until we do, check each book's own page: we list its points where we know them. Know how Coward-McCann marked its firsts? Tell us.
Authors
Published by Coward-McCann
Frequently asked questions
How many Coward-McCann books does MyVolumes track?
We track 40 editions published by Coward-McCann, 34 of them first editions, across 40 books.
Where these facts come from
- Songs of Today Series, Series of Series (seriesofseries.com)
- G. P. Putnam's Sons, Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
- John Geoghegan, Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
- Coward-McCann, Inc. (Q98431719), Wikidata (wikidata.org)
- The Talented Mr. Ripley, Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
- The Price of Salt, Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
- Millions of Cats, Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
Every fact on this page was checked against the sources listed. Checked 18 October 2026. Reviewed by Harriet Ellis; read how we check facts.