The Random House imprint Alfred A. Knopf has acquired Everyman Publishers plc., the U.K.—based publisher of hardcover classics. Knopf has been the American publisher of Everyman since the company, originally founded in 1906, was relaunched in 1991 by David Campbell.
Little will change with the Knopf acquisition. Campbell and his staff will continue to direct the program from London in collaboration with Knopf editor LuAnn Walther, who has worked on Everyman since 1991. Sales in the U.K. and Europe will still be handled by Random House U.K., with distribution through Grantham Book Services.
Everyman, which has a backlist of more than 300 titles, releases between 14 to 15 new titles annually. Revenue for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2001, was £3.7 million ($5.9 million) and the company had pretax profits of £157,000. Campbell said that while Everyman has been consistently profitable, "inevitably a small, independent company can do less than it would sometimes wish." He said the deal with Knopf "will let us build on what we have already achieved." Among the authors added to its list are Jorge Luis Borges, Albert Camus, Raymond Chandler, Joseph Heller and Evelyn Waugh.
