Scope and Content Note
The Ken McCormick Collection of the Records of Doubleday & Company spans 1882-1992, with the bulk of the records dated from 1910-1992. Founded as Doubleday, McClure & Company in 1897 by Frank Nelson Doubleday, the company, through skillful management and timely mergers, became one of the largest and most influential houses in modern publishing history. With the acquisition of a new partner, Walter Hines Page, the firm became known as Doubleday, Page & Company from 1900 to 1927, and after its merger with George H. Doran, as Doubleday, Doran & Company from 1928 to 1945. Although Doran retired in 1935, it was not until 1946 that the company assumed its present corporate title, Doubleday & Company.
Among the many talented individuals who contributed to the growth and success of Doubleday, Kenneth Dale McCormick (1906-), who occupied a variety of positions in a career that spanned more than fifty years with the company, distinguished himself as one of the leading figures in publishing. He served as both editor and chief operating executive of Doubleday's editorial department. Due to his long association with the company and his interest in detailing the firm's history, McCormick, with the permission of Doubleday's directors, initiated a project to select and preserve its records. McCormick was involved with the project from 1985 to 1992, sifting through the company's case files and adding a retrospective commentary in the form of typewritten cover sheets. His collection reflects the discretion with which the records were selected, including the files not only of famous authors but also those of writers published to lesser acclaim, which clarify or demonstrate a special situation unique to the world of publishing.
The collection is a mine of information on an intriguing aspect of literature, that of the relationship between author and editor. Correspondence, memoranda, notes, and other records documenting the design, production, editing, and publicity functions of a major publisher have been culled largely from Doubleday's publishing case files and are divided into two subseries: an author file and a subject and title file. A small series consisting of administrative office files and an addition appended in 1997 of research material relating to Christopher Morley assembled for Doubleday's unpublished seventy-fifth anniversary book are also included. Files have been maintained in their original arrangement and filed in reverse chronological order.
Throughout its existence, Doubleday's publishing list has included bestsellers by such popular authors as Arnold Bennett, Noel Coward, Daphne Du Maurier, Arthur Hailey, W. Somerset Maugham, and Booth Tarkington, as well as specialized books in the arts, natural history and the sciences, politics, sociology, and religion. Doubleday was the publisher of such significant political titles as Dwight D. Eisenhower's Crusade in Europe and Harry S. Truman's two-volume memoir; bestselling novels such as Herman Wouk's The Caine Mutiny and Irving Stone's The Agony and the Ecstasy; and Bruce Catton's prize-winning books about the Civil War. These writers are all represented in the Author File, which documents not only the symbiotic relationship of author and editor but also the various editorial and production stages through which a book must pass before its final publication.
The files of Kenneth Lewis Roberts, the well-known historical novelist, constitute the single largest set of records in the collection and include correspondence from the publication of his first popular success, Arundel, until his death. Other files worthy of note include those of Stephen Vincent Benét, Arthur Conan Doyle, Paul Gallico, Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow, Alex Haley, O. Henry, Helen Keller, Robert F. Kennedy, Rudyard Kipling, T. E. Lawrence, Christopher Morley, Kathleen Thompson Norris, Frederic Prokosch, Ishmael Reed, Max Shulman, Frank G. Slaughter, Wallace Earle Stegner, Leon Trotsky, Leon Uris, Helen Van Slyke, Hugh Walpole, Paul I. Wellman, H. G. Wells, Garry Wills, and P. G. Wodehouse. While the files of contemporary authors include their original correspondence, those of earlier writers often contain a considerable quantity of letters written by family members acting in their capacity as literary executors.
The success of Doubleday was due in part to its skillful editorial staff, which McCormick led for many years as editor in chief. A sympathetic counselor and creative critic, McCormick possessed the characteristics required of the successful editor, but he is not the only editor represented in the collection. Other editors who appear prominently include such distinguished figures as Lee Barker, Walter Bradbury, Clara Claussen, and Harry E. Maule. The Office File includes additional files of editors Howard S. Cady, Thomas Bertram Costain, and Beverly Gordey.
Doubleday developed many of the sales strategies which became standard practice in publishing, pioneering concepts such as mass-marketing techniques, mail-order merchandising, subscription book clubs, and reprint publication. The effectiveness of its advertising, design, promotion, and publicity organization was well respected in the trade, and material throughout the collection concerns to the production and distribution operations essential to the successful publication of a book.
McCormick's contribution to the collection consists of cover sheets which he wrote as accompanying notes to many of the files he selected for preservation. As a keen observer of the personalities and publishing trends of his day, McCormick provides background information and insightful sketches that explain and expand the contents of the files. His notes also relate the personal foibles and professional idiosyncrasies of authors and editors alike and elucidate the peculiar publishing history of specific books and manuscripts. Written between 1985 and 1992 the notes function as McCormick's personal narrative, enriching the cultural documentation implicit in the files themselves.