Atheneum Books is a New York City publishing house established in 1959 by Alfred A. Knopf Jr., Simon Michael Bessie and Hiram Haydn. Simon & Schuster has owned Atheneum properties since 1994, and it created Atheneum Books for Young Readers as an imprint for children's literature in the 2000s.
History
Alfred A. Knopf Jr. left his family publishing house Alfred A. Knopf and created Atheneum Books in 1959 with Simon Michael Bessie (Harpers) and Hiram Haydn (Random House).[1] It became the publisher of Pulitzer Prize winners Edward Albee, Charles Johnson, James Merrill, Nikki Giovanni, Mona Van Duyn, Robert K. Massie, and Theodore H. White. It also published Ernest Gaines' first book Catherine Carmier (1964). Knopf recruited editor Jean E. Karl to establish a Children's Book Department in 1961.[2][3]