Pitman

About Pitman

Pitman, trading for most of its life as Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons, was a British publisher of shorthand, business and educational books, founded by the shorthand inventor Isaac Pitman and bought by Pearson in 1985.

Isaac Pitman set out his shorthand system in 1837, opened his first Phonetic Institute in Bath in 1839 and set up his own printing press in 1845, later moving through a series of Phonetic Institutes in the city. In 1886 he took his sons Alfred and Ernest into partnership as Isaac Pitman and Sons, later Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons. Alfred ran the business after Sir Isaac retired in 1895. By the 20th century the firm had offices in London, New York, Toronto, Melbourne, Johannesburg and Tokyo, with its London base at Pitman House, Parker Street, Kingsway. In 1946 it described its work as publishing, printing and running commercial colleges.

Alongside its business and educational list, Pitman published some general books. Collectors know it as the London publisher of L. M. Montgomery: it issued the first UK editions of Anne of Green Gables (1908), Anne of Avonlea (1909), Kilmeny of the Orchard (1910), The Story Girl (1911) and Anne of the Island (1915), each in the same year as L. C. Page's Boston edition.

The company became Pitman Ltd in 1975 and a public limited company in 1982. Pearson bought the publishing division in 1985, while the training side continued separately as Pitman Training.