Knopf

About Knopf

Alfred A. Knopf, usually called Knopf, is an American literary publisher founded in New York City in 1915 by Alfred A. Knopf and Blanche Knopf (then his fiancee, later his wife), and it is now an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group within Penguin Random House.

Alfred started with a one-room office and just under five thousand dollars, much of it advanced by his father Samuel, and the business was incorporated in 1918. Blanche, vice-president from 1921 and president from 1957, built its links with European and South American writers and is credited with the firm's borzoi dog colophon. From 1923 Knopf also published H. L. Mencken and George Jean Nathan's magazine The American Mercury.

Willa Cather published sixteen books with Knopf, Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet (1923) became one of its most successful titles, and its list included Thomas Mann, Langston Hughes, Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre and John Updike. Editor Judith Jones later acquired Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

The Knopfs sold the firm to Random House in 1960, and Knopf kept its editorial independence as an imprint. It was combined with Doubleday in 2009 to form Knopf Doubleday, which became part of Penguin Random House when that group was formed in 2013.

How to spot a Knopf first edition

• Before about 1933 Knopf put no first edition statement on first printings; reprints were marked on the copyright page ("Second Printing", "Third Printing" and so on), so a copy with no printing note is the first.
• A note reading "First and second printings before publication" means the copy belongs to the second printing, not the first.
• From about 1933 or 1934 Knopf first printings state "First Edition" on the copyright page, or "First American Edition" when the book had already appeared abroad.

US first editions

• From the founding in 1915 until about 1933 a Knopf first printing has no edition statement; reprints say "Second Printing", "Third Printing" and so on on the copyright page, so a copy with no printing note is the first.
• A copyright page noting that the first and second printings both came before publication belongs to the second printing, run off because advance orders were strong.
• From about 1933 to 1934 a first printing says "First Edition" on the copyright page, or "First American Edition" where the book had already been published abroad (in 1937 the firm said: where the English edition came first or at the same time). The firm restated this practice in 1947.
• Where a number row appears on the copyright page, the lowest figure is the printing, whatever order the figures run in (1 2 3 4 5, 1 3 5 4 2 or 5 4 3 2 1), so a row that still includes 1 normally means a first printing.
• Book-of-the-Month Club copies are usually the same size and quality as the trade edition, so size is no guide. Look instead for a jacket with no price on the front flap and a small blind stamp (a dot, circle or square) low on the rear board. BOMC printed prices on some jackets in the 1970s, but those copies still carry the blind stamp.
• A rear-board mark is not always a club sign: a few very large printings were shared between printing plants, each of which embossed its own mark.