“With a hundred volumes a man may
be intellectually rich for life.”

–Joseph Dent

Everyman’s Library is known for its aesthetically pleasing volumes of literary works.

Everyman’s Library was founded on 15th February 1906. Joseph Dent, the founder of the publishing house, published fifty volumes. The aim behind establishing Everyman’s Library was satisfying “aesthetic pleasure” of the reader’s eye. However, there was more to it. He also wanted to publish world’s classic at one shilling a volume, “to appeal to every kind of reader: the worker, the student, the cultured man, the child, the man and the woman.”

The publishing house has published a good chunk of modern writers as well. Some of the authors whose work has been published by Everyman’s Library include: Achebe, Allende, Bassani, Bellow, Borges, Bradbury, Bulgakov, Calvino, Camus, Cather, Chandler, Dahl, Eco, Penelope Fitzgerald, Forster, Grass, Greene, Hašek, Heller, Hemingway, Highsmith, Levi, Lessing, McCarthy, Mahfouz, Mann, Marquez, and many more.

But there was a break in publishing new works. The transition was not a smooth process. The most beloved publishing house ceased publication of new titles in the 1970s. Eventually, the hardback rights to Everyman’s Library were sold to the newly formed David Campbell Publishers in 1991. The new publisher re-launched Everyman’s Library with the support of the Random House Group in the United Kingdom and through Alfred A. Knopf in the United States. Many notable authors praised the step that David Campbell Publishers had taken.