Five months after Yohan Inc., the largest distributor of foreign-language books in Asia, acquired Berkeley, Calif.—based Stone Bridge Press, the company has acquired Heian, an international children's book publisher located in Los Angeles. Heian and Stone Bridge will be imprints under the Yohan banner and operate out of Stone Bridge's Berkeley office.
Heian is best known for Humphrey the Lost Whale and a series of Chinese folktale books for children. The acquisition gives Stone Bridge, known for adult books about Japan and its pop culture, its first children's book line. The acquisition also doubles Stone Bridge's backlist to about 150 titles, said company founder and publisher Peter Goodman.
Heian's two employees will not move to Berkeley with the company; instead, Goodman said, he expects to add a few people on staff. Currently, Stone Bridge is working on the second and much-expanded edition of The Anime Encyclopedia: A Guide to Japanese Animation Since 1917, to be published in November. This first edition has sold more than 30,000 copies. "That is what really put us on the map," said Goodman.
