Talk:E. P. Dutton

Connections
Was the John MacRae mentioned in the article the namesake of MacRae Smith Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, now defunct? &mdash;QuicksilverT @ 05:04, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

Links
All the author links in the list of titles connect to the author's own pages - shouldn't they instead link to the Wikipedia article on those authors, where one exists? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 146.127.253.12 (talk) 21:38, 28 January 2011 (UTC)

Books published by E. P. Dutton
http://books.google.com/books?id=zgsEAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

Jerezembel (talk) 20:28, 17 November 2012 (UTC)

Among collectors of children art paper, E. P. Dutton, New York, is known as co-publisher with Ernest Nister, London, of the most noted line of art-printed illustrated children books 1890-1914 and one of the largest and best lines of art-printed ephemera 1890-1914 and UK/U.S. art postcards 1901-1914. This extensive line of art paper is usually referred to only by the Nister name without mention of Dutton, whose role was U.S. distributor of the products rather than actual "publisher." 1887-89 E.P.Dutton distributed UK illustrated children books art printed by Ernest Nister, Nurnberg. Earlier UK G&F illustrated books, not of the quality of the Nister art-printed books, were also distributed by Dutton. The point is that Dutton was not the originator of the publication. It is also uncertain whether G&F was the originator--the art printed idea may have come from Nister, the Nurnberg printer, and the circle of UK writers and illustrators--with G&F more or less only the publishing and distributing agent for the Nister printing and UK author/artist circle's operation. In any case, when Nister became official co-publisher in 1890, that was Eernest Nister, London, distinct from the "printed by Ernest Nister of Nuremberg" statement between the two co-publisher statements on the title pages. Ernest Nister, London, determined the content and art and was run by UK operatives. Ernest Nister, Nurnberg, determined the form--art printing and the novelty mechanical pop-up and image transformations pioneered by Nister.

Several of the Nister art-printed children books 1887-1890s had European translated editions, perhaps through Nister's initiative--doubtful that the earlier G&F/Dutton books had European editions, unknown whether the earlier G&F/Dutton books were printed by a German printer. Somewhat a peculiarity in book publication history that G&F, a book publisher like Dutton with extensive publication before Nister and after Nister, was credited as publisher 3 years and thereafter this line was Nister's property. So far as is known, the only other illustrated children books with European distribution were the 1885-c.1889 Hildesheimer & Faulkner books with some same illustrators and writers--distributed in U.S. with Geo. Whitney, New York, co-publisher imprint--uncertain whether UK editions had the co-publisher imprint, unknown who the German printer was with the "designed in England, printed in Germany" statement between the co-publisher imprints (Dondorf, Frankfurt; Obpacher, Munich, and Nister, Nurnberg, subsequently used images from the H&F books in their art publication and may have variously been H&F printers--H&F UK greeting card publication ceased c. 1890 but H&F artwork UK greeting card publication continued without publisher imprint through the 1890s), and also unknown why New York for Whitney rather than the usual Boston statement. Again Whitney the "co-publisher" was only distributor of these UK children books, although this writer possesses one booklet with only Whitney publisher imprint that may have been "published" only for U.S. distribution at Whitney's initiative.

Regarding Dutton's role in Nister publication 1887-1914, Dutton as U.S. distributor had some decision in books and ephemera distributed only in the U.S. market (an 1889 book illustrated by Frances Brundage & 3 other Brundage-illustrated books in 1890s, N-D calendars, 1890s advertising and tradecard pieces and 1910s diecut valentines, and perhaps 1890s mini-books distributed mainly in U.S.)...also the American artists of N-D postcards when Nister transitioned from Victorian to new style children images (one of the first major publishers to do so) must have been recruited and overseen by Dutton. As a side-note, Nister also had a German-market line of art postcards 1898-1920s with associate publisher Th. Stroefer. Artwork was from the 1887-early 1890s Nister illustrated books with only a small proportion of total publication original for German market. The Stroefer postcards, however, do not have any Nister co-publisher imprint.

Nister-Dutton art paper publication is a key part in the history of art publication 1880-1930 but only a small part of Dutton's 1852-1986 overall publication...and in any case, Dutton's part in the N-D art publication was more as distributor than as co-publisher.

A footnote to the N-D co-publisher imprints that began in 1890: 1890 co-publisher imprint was D-N, thereafter N-D. Occasional pieces with only Nister or only Dutton imprint occur, including two smaller illustrated books that may date c.1889 or 1890 and thus parallel to G&F and Dutton separate "editions" of same books 1887-1889. U.S. tradecards with the N-D images have no imprint except some with Dutton imprint dated 1889 (Brundage images from 1889 Dutton Nister-printed book)--also large prints, same 1889 images. The major U.S. art publishers had advertising departments and obviously Dutton would have operated the N-D U.S.-market advertising department. Division of income among UK publishing operation, German printing operation, and U.S. distributing and advertising operations is unknown--as also between Stroefer and Nister with the associate publisher/printer German-market operation.

The major parts of art publication 1880-1914 were international (less so in early 1920s, but International Art Publishing Co./Wolf & Co. Euro associate publisher operations appear to have continued to 1929 or 30 as also Obpacher Brothers U.S. "Winsch" operation. Since operations in outside markets often involved no publisher imprint or only misleading distributor or associate publisher imprints, reliable detailed history of the half-century art publication phenomenon has remained in near-total limbo.

jonhatfield own collection source — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jonhatfield (talk • contribs) 17:32, 15 April 2013 (UTC)


 * This looks like good stuff that could be summarised in the article if it can be attributed to reliable published sources. Could you identify the sources of this information? Phil Bridger (talk) 18:51, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

Merger proposal
I propose merging the page Edward Payson Dutton into E. P. Dutton. Content of the founder's page is minimal and doesn't contribute anything that isn't already covered here, so it has dubious value independently. werewolf (talk) 20:12, 8 March 2020 (UTC)