Golden Press

About Golden Press

Golden Press was the American publishing company and imprint set up at the end of 1958 by Western Publishing and Pocket Books after they jointly bought the Golden Books properties from Simon & Schuster.

The Golden Books line dates from 1942, when Western Publishing of Racine, Wisconsin, launched Little Golden Books with Simon & Schuster: twelve titles priced at 25 cents each, printed by Western. After 1958 the series and other Golden titles appeared under the Golden Press name, including larger picture books such as Richard Scarry's Best Word Book Ever (1963), which was revised by 1980 to remove stereotyped roles for women and to update wording such as "policeman".

In 1996 the company renamed itself Golden Books Family Entertainment. Following its bankruptcy, Random House and Classic Media bought the business at auction in August 2001, and Little Golden Books is now published by Penguin Random House.

How to spot a Golden Press first edition

• For Little Golden Books from 1947 to 1970, the printing is shown by a single letter in the lower right corner of the last page, near the spine: "A" is the first printing, "B" the second, and so on.
• From 1971 to 1991 a row of letters appears on one of the first pages; the letter at the far left gives the printing, so a first printing starts with "A".
• From 1991 the printing year appears in Roman numerals beside the copyright date; an "A" with the numerals marks a first edition and an "R" a revised edition.
• The copyright page keeps the original publication year on reprints, so the date alone cannot identify a first printing.
• The original 1942 Little Golden Books price was 25 cents.