Dutton Books is a rather successful imprint of Penguin Books, and actually consists of two imprints: Dutton Books and Dutton Children's Books. Of these two, Dutton Children's Books is the more productive in terms of books published. Technically, these are two separate imprints, and should be referred to by their separate names, but in practice Dutton Children's Books is usually shortened to simply Dutton -- even on Penguin's website.


Dutton Books:

E.P. Dutton was originally founded in 1852 by Edward Payson Dutton as a Boston book-selling firm. The business did well, and in 1864 they opened up a branch office in New York, and started publishing religious works. Their first big seller was the two-volume Life of Christ by Frederic Farrar in 1874. They went on to publish works by Cleveland Amory, Marchette Chute, John Hunt, Francoise Sagan, Lawrence Durrell, Luigi Pirandello, John Irving, Jorge Luis Borges, Gavin Maxwell, Joyce Carol Oates, Gail Sheehy, and Mickey Spillane.

In 1986 E.P. Dutton was bought by the Penguin Group and renamed Dutton Books (it is sometimes still referred to E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc.); it was also at this time that Dutton Children's Books was split off as a separate imprint. Penguin identifies Dutton as a 'boutique imprint', focused on finding and publicizing bestsellers. It typically publishes about 40 books a year, and they brag that on average one in every four of its books makes it on to the New York Times bestseller list. They have published a number of books to top that list, including works by Harlan Coben, Ken Follett, Elizabeth George, Eckhart Tolle, and Al Franken. It splits its titles evenly between fiction and non-fiction.


Dutton Children's Books:

While Dutton Children's Books was created in 1986, it has a large and impressive back catalog. Their most impressive title is probably Winnie the Pooh (they have the American publishing rights; in London it is published by Methuen & Co. Ltd.), but they have a number of well-known titles, including many of Judy Blume's earlier works, The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin, My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George, Gayneck, The Story of a Pigeon by Dhan Gopal Mukerji, and the Walter the Farting Dog series by William Kotzwinkle and Glenn Murray, among many others.

They publish around 80 new hardcover titles every year, both fiction and nonfiction, and for all ages from infant to young adult. While they certainly publish many picture books, they are currently focusing on children's chapter books and young adult novels. Dutton has been so successful that other imprints of Penguin will sometimes supplement their catalogs by issuing reprints of popular Dutton titles (this will usually credit both, giving the publisher as Dutton/NAL). While they are not so successful as Dutton in terms of bestsellers, they have had a number of titles make the New York Times Best Illustrated Books list or to have won a Newbery Medal, Newbery Honor, the Michael L. Printz Award, or Caldecott Medals.



References:
Penguin.com:Dutton
Penguin.com: Dutton Children's
Penguin.com: NAL
Wikipedia.org: Penguin Group
Wikipedia.org: Dutton Children's Books
Penguin.com: Winnie the Pooh
Jacketflap.com: Dutton Children's Books

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