Oxford University Press

About Oxford University Press

Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford, a department of the university with charitable status, whose formal right to print dates from 1586 and which is the publisher of the Oxford English Dictionary.

The first book printed in Oxford appeared in 1478. A decree of 1586 confirmed the university's right to print, and Archbishop William Laud's charter of 1636 allowed it to print "all manner of books". The press moved into the Clarendon Building in 1713, which is the origin of its Clarendon Press imprint, now used for academically significant titles. Lewis Carroll paid for the press to print the first, later withdrawn, edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865).

OUP took on the dictionary project of James Murray and the Philological Society in 1879; printing began in 1884 and the first edition was completed in 1928.

For collectors, OUP also matters as a children's publisher. Its first editions include Rosemary Sutcliff's The Eagle of the Ninth (1954), Philippa Pearce's Tom's Midnight Garden (1958), which won the Carnegie Medal, and Philip Pullman's The Ruby in the Smoke (1985).

OUP is governed by academic Delegates of the Press appointed by the vice-chancellor, with the Secretary to the Delegates as chief executive. It remains owned by the university.