Founded in 1846 by Charles Scribner, Scribner was originally a publisher of religious books. By 1870, the company had turned to literature and begun publishing, in addition to books, Scribner’s Monthly, “an illustrated magazine for the people.” The magazine and its successor, Scribner’s Magazine, attracted fresh young writers, many of whom became Scribner authors.

Charles Scribner II took over in 1879 after the deaths of his father and older brother, and under this guidance the company became identified with the giants of twentieth-century American literature, such as Henry James and Edith Wharton. In short succession, Charles Scribner’s Sons published Ring Lardner, Ernest Hemingway, Thomas Wolfe, and Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. Famed editors Maxwell Perkins and John Hall Wheelock realized that a new era in American literature was dawning, and in 1920 F. Scott Fitzgerald’s first novel, This Side of Paradise, proclaimed the Jazz Age.

In 1978, Scribner acquired Atheneum, and in 1984 merged with Macmillan. Today, under publisher Nan Graham, Scribner has a distinguished list of writers that includes Annie Proulx, author of Brokeback Mountain and The Shipping News, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award; Frank McCourt, whose memoir Angela’s Ashes won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award; and Don DeLillo, whose novel Underworld won the Howell Award from the Academy of Arts and Letters. Scribner also publishes #1 bestselling author Stephen King, awarded the National Medal of Arts in 2015; Anthony Doerr, author of Pulitzer-winner All The Light We Cannot See; and a host of other luminary authors including Jesmyn Ward, Jeannette Walls, Andrew Solomon, Kiese Laymon, S. C. Gwynne, Angela Duckworth, Tom Perrotta, Jennifer Egan, Colm Toibin, and Siddhartha Mukherjee.