History of Methuen Publishing

Methuen & Co, Ltd. was founded by Algernon Methuen Marshall Steadman, a teacher and headmaster, in 1889. He believed in books that were helpful and published mostly non-fiction academic works in the early years branching out to encourage female authors and later translated works. Methuen was subsumed into the general publishing division of Associated Book Publishers, part of International Thomson, and the general list later sold to Reed International in December 1987. The academic list stayed with Routledge in ABP. It came into the Random House Group on the purchase of the Reed Consumer list in 1997.

Methuen Drama bought itself out from Random House in 1998 and moved into its own offices on Vauxhall Bridge Road as Methuen Publishing Limited on 4^th January 1999. They then acquired the imprint of Politico’s, which specialises in political books, in April 2003. Methuen then moved to Buckingham Gate on 13^th June 2005 and have since moved to Artillery Row. Subsequently Methuen Publishing has sold on its drama list to Bloomsbury in May 2006.

The Methuen archive was removed from the Random House Library on 9th December 2009. For questions relating to this collection post-2009 please contact Methuen Publishing.