- A Grosset & Dunlap edition of a book first issued by another publisher is a reprint, not a first edition; most of the firm's general list consists of such reprints.
- Grosset & Dunlap did not mark first editions, and a reprint can carry no date later than its original copyright year, so a copyright date alone does not prove a first printing: its 1949 reissues of Thornton W. Burgess's Bedtime Stories, for example, are often mistaken for older books because their latest date is from the early 1940s.
Publisher · founded 1898 · New York City
Grosset & Dunlap
Grosset & Dunlap is a New York publisher founded in 1898, long a hardback reprint house and the original publisher of the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew, now part of Penguin Random House.
- Editions tracked
- 183
- First editions
- 145
- Books
- 183
- Years
- 1839 to 2012
Grosset & Dunlap is a publisher based in New York City, founded in 1898. We track 183 editions it published between 1839 and 2012, 145 of them first editions across 183 books. How Grosset & Dunlap marked its first editions is set out below, with a checker for the year on your title page.
About Grosset & Dunlap
Grosset & Dunlap is a New York publisher founded in 1898 by Alexander Grosset and George T. Dunlap, best known as a hardback reprint house and as the original publisher of the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew series, and now part of Penguin Young Readers at Penguin Random House.
For much of its history the firm worked largely, though not only, in reprints, for example of Thornton W. Burgess's books under licence from Little, Brown. In 1907 it took over Chatterton & Peck, whose children's list included books from Edward Stratemeyer's syndicate, and through that partnership it published the Hardy Boys from 1927, Nancy Drew, the Bobbsey Twins, Tom Swift and Cherry Ames. In 1945, with Curtis Publishing, it founded the paperback house Bantam Books, which it wholly owned from 1964.
After Dunlap retired in 1944 the firm was sold to a group of publishers including Random House, Little, Brown, Harper, Scribner and the Book of the Month Club. National General bought it in 1968, American Financial Group acquired National General in 1973, Filmways bought it in 1974 and G. P. Putnam's Sons in 1982. Putnam merged with Penguin in 1996, and since 2013 the imprint has belonged to Penguin Random House.
Holding a copy? The first edition checker shows Grosset & Dunlap's practice for the year on your title page.
Identification
How to identify Grosset & Dunlap first editions
Authors
Books
Published by Grosset & Dunlap
Frequently asked questions
How do I identify a Grosset & Dunlap first edition?
- A Grosset & Dunlap edition of a book first issued by another publisher is a reprint, not a first edition; most of the firm's general list consists of such reprints. - Grosset & Dunlap did not mark first editions, and a reprint can carry no date later than its original copyright year, so a copyright date alone does not prove a first printing: its 1949 reissues of Thornton W. Burgess's Bedtime Sto
How many Grosset & Dunlap books does MyVolumes track?
We track 183 editions published by Grosset & Dunlap, 145 of them first editions, across 183 books.
Where these facts come from
- Grosset & Dunlap, Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
- Book Collecting Basics: How to Identify First Editions by Grosset & Dunlap, Andrea Koczela, ILAB, 2015 (ilab.org)
- Hardy Boys dust jackets, Newport Vintage Books (newportvintagebooks.com)
Every fact on this page was checked against the sources listed. Checked 17 October 2026. Reviewed by Harriet Ellis; read how we check facts.