Delacorte Press
Delacorte Press is the imprint of Dell Publishing that issued Slaughterhouse-Five in 1969 and is now part of Penguin Random House.
- Editions tracked
- 280
- First editions
- 160
- Books
- 278
- Years
- 1959 to 2025
About Delacorte Press
Delacorte Press is an American imprint created by Dell Publishing, the New York company George T. Delacorte Jr. founded in 1921, and it is now part of Penguin Random House.
Dell built its business on magazines, comics and paperbacks before adding book imprints such as Delacorte. Seymour Lawrence, who launched his own imprint in 1965 and is credited with discovering Kurt Vonnegut, ran it as a Dell division for seventeen years before moving to E. P. Dutton in 1982. Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five came out under the Delacorte name on 31 March 1969.
Doubleday bought Dell in 1976. Bertelsmann acquired Doubleday in 1986 and formed Bantam Doubleday Dell, then bought Random House in 1998; Random House merged with Penguin in 2013, which is how Delacorte came to Penguin Random House. Dell no longer exists as a separate company.
Later Delacorte first editions include Diana Gabaldon's Outlander novel A Breath of Snow and Ashes (September 2005), which reached number one on the New York Times hardcover fiction list, and E. Lockhart's young adult novel We Were Liars (2014).
How to spot a Delacorte Press first edition
AuthorsDanielle Steel (40)Lee Child (11)Kurt Vonnegut (10)Elmore Leonard (9)Brandon Sanderson (8)Karin Slaughter (7)Mary Balogh (6)Caroline B. Cooney (6)Paula Danziger (6)Holly Jackson (6)
SeriesJack ReacherThe ReckonersSkyward seriesThe Sisterhood of the Traveling PantsDen of ShadowsFallenHannibal LecterOutlander series
Published by Delacorte Press
Spot the first: Copyright page: statement reading First Printing (first printing)
Frequently asked questions
How do I identify a Delacorte Press first edition?
How many Delacorte Press books does MyVolumes track?
We track 280 editions published by Delacorte Press, 160 of them first editions, across 278 books.
Where these facts come from
- Dell Publishing, Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
- Seymour Lawrence, Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
- Slaughterhouse-Five, Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
- A Breath of Snow and Ashes, Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
- We Were Liars, Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
- First Edition Identification by Publisher A-G, Quill & Brush (qbbooks.com)
Every fact on this page was checked against the sources listed. Checked 17 October 2026.