Easton Press

In 1980, Easton Press had one principal program - The 100 Greatest Books. The privately held leather-bound publisher was (and is still) a division of MBI in Norwalk, Connecticut whose sister divisions include The Danbury Mint and the Postal Commemorative Society.

In 1982, Arthur Klebanoff brought Easton Press its first major licensed continuity program - the Roger Tory Peterson Field Guide Program. The 40+ volume leather-bound editions were licensed from Houghton Mifflin. Roger Tory Peterson agreed to autograph the Eastern Guide for each set and to provide both an original artwork and art from his archive for frontispieces. The Audubon Society, National Wildlife Foundation and Museum of Natural History all agreed to "endorsed mailings" to support the offer.

The result was a successful offer which sold over 1,000,000 leather-bound books over a twenty year period.

Easton Press then asked Arthur Klebanoff to convince the three living Presidents of the United States - Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford and Richard Nixon - to autograph their memoirs in a collection which became known as Library of the Presidents. That continuity offer which includes premier biographies of every President of the United States is successfully marketed today.

One monthly continuity offer led to another - Masterpieces of Science Fiction, Great Lives, Military History, American History, etc.

Easton Press introduced several major line initiatives - autographed editions including continuities for first editions of science fiction, first editions of prominent non-fiction, modern fiction classics and, later, a program of leather-bound editions of a wide range of visual books which now has more than 100 titles.

One notable offer issued the complete works of Ernest Hemingway - the first time Hemingway's work had ever been so presented. One of the visual books - One Nation by the Editors of Life conveying the story of 9/11 - broke every publishing record in the history of Easton Press.

With the day to day program direction of Mary Jo Valko Warner, the Scott Meredith Literary Agency has arranged licenses for more than 3,000 Easton Press titles over the past twenty years and now handles several hundred new licenses and license renewals annually.

Today Easton Press is the pre-eminent leader in leather-bound publishing in the United States. Easton prides itself on the quality of its editions and presents itself with first class direct marketing materials. We are proud to be an ongoing part of their well-deserved success.