Publisher

Pleasant Co

Pleasant Company was the Wisconsin publisher founded by Pleasant Rowland in 1986 to produce the American Girls books and dolls; Mattel bought it in 1998 and it became American Girl, Inc. in 2004.

Editions tracked: 31
First editions: 30
Books: 31
Years: 1986 to 2003

Search all Pleasant Co editions

Pleasant Co is a publisher active from 1986. We track 31 editions it published between 1986 and 2003, 30 of them first editions across 31 books. Each book lists its first edition and the points that identify it.

About Pleasant Co

Pleasant Company was the Wisconsin firm, founded by Pleasant Rowland in 1986, that created the American Girls Collection of historical novels and matching 18-inch dolls, and it is now American Girl, part of Mattel.

Rowland, a former teacher who had written and published educational books, had the idea after a trip to Colonial Williamsburg: teaching American history through fictional girls from different periods, each with a six-book series. The first three heroines were Kirsten, a Swedish immigrant in 1850s Minnesota; Samantha, an orphan in New York in 1904; and Molly, a Chicago girl during the Second World War. Later characters included Felicity in Williamsburg in 1774, Addy, who escapes slavery during the Civil War, and Josefina in New Mexico in 1824. Valerie Tripp wrote many of the books, and Connie Rose Porter wrote Addy's six core titles.

Wikipedia places the firm's start in Madison, with a later move to nearby Middleton, while company histories give Middleton as its base. A bimonthly American Girl magazine followed in 1992. Mattel bought Pleasant Company in 1998 for a reported $700 million, and in early 2004 the business took the name American Girl, Inc.

We have not yet written the guide to Pleasant Co's first-edition conventions. Until we do, check each book's own page: we list its points where we know them. Know how Pleasant Co marked its firsts? Tell us.