Algonquin Books was founded as a small independent trade publisher in 1982 by Louis D. Rubin Jr. and Shannon Ravenel, with the help and support of a small group of friends and financial backers. We announced our first list of five books with the following statement:

"We shall be publishing books of quality, both fiction and nonfiction. They will be attractively produced, promoted individually, and marketed extensively. Though we hope and expect that our books will gain their share of book club adoptions, mass paperback sales, and movie and television adaptations, it is their quality that will be our foremost consideration, for we believe that it is still possible to publish worthy fiction and nonfiction that will also be financially profitable for author, publisher, and bookseller."

We believe the same is true today.

In 1989 we were acquired by Workman Publishing, an independent company then in business close to twenty years and succesfully publishing cookbooks (including SILVER PALATE), practical books (including WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU'RE EXPECTING), children's books (including BRAIN QUEST), and calendars. Workman provided financial support and shared its great marketing strength with Algonquin. Its powerful sales force helped to take us national.

Louis Rubin retired in 1992, leaving a legacy of commitment to an old-fashioned style of publishing. He was succeded by Elisabeth Scharlatt, who has been with the company since 1989. She and Shannon Ravenel continue the tradition of attention to every book and have managed to maintain the character of Algonquin while expanding it--especially the development of a strong nonfiction list.

We've managed to remain small in the important ways while growing. Some of our operations are in New York, and we still have offices in Chapel Hill. We still publish twenty to twenty-five new books each year (though our average print-runs have more than doubled). Our books are sold in chain stores and reviewed in major national magazines and our authors cover the map, but we never forget the independent stores and local papers that helped to launch us.