The Rowman &Littlefield Publishing Group has had a busy few weeks during which it acquired three small academic publishers, appointed a new editorial director and announced it was expanding its monograph program.
On the acquisition front, Rowman acquired the assets of International Scholars Publications Inc. and Austin &Winfield. Robert West, who served as publisher of both companies, has joined Rowman as editorial director of its University Press of America imprint.
International Scholars publishes religion, African studies, philosophy, and language and literature titles; Austin &Winfield focuses on law and criminal justice. The two companies have a combined backlist of 400 titles.
Rowman's third purchase involved the acquisition of 53 college textbook titles from Ardsley House. Ardsley publisher and founder Martin Zukerman will continue to handle some duties relating to Ardsley, but his main tasks will be those of acquisitions editor for economics at Rowman.
The company is bringing back a former employee, naming Kermit Hummel editorial director of Derrydale Press, which specializes in books on the outdoors. Hummel will be based in a new office in Missoula, Mont. He had been director of trade publishing for Rowman, after serving as president and publisher of Basic Books.
In announcing that it plans to increase its publication schedule for monographs, Rowman is running against the trend that has seen most publishers cutting their involvement. Rowman &Littlefield president Jed Lyons said he thinks the company can be successful by publishing a large number of quality works that will be heavily marketed. The monograph program is being run through Rowman's Lexington Books imprint and will focus on the humanities and social sciences.
CORRECTION: In "The Book Doctor Is In" (May 10), agent Liza Dawson now has an office in New York. The managers of Sensible Solutions are Judith Appelbaum and Florence Janovic.
