Salem Press is a publisher of reference works on literature

Literature

Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...

, history

History

History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...

 and biography

Biography

A biography is a detailed description or account of someone's life. More than a list of basic facts , biography also portrays the subject's experience of those events...

, the social sciences

Social sciences

Social science is the field of study concerned with society. "Social science" is commonly used as an umbrella term to refer to a plurality of fields outside of the natural sciences usually exclusive of the administrative or managerial sciences...

, and science

Science

Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...

. Salem Press publishes comprehensive, multivolume sets under its Salem Press imprint, and smaller, condensed titles under its Magill’s Choice imprint.
Products include traditional print products, e-books, and online databases designed for use at public, school, and college and university libraries.

Company history

The company was founded in 1949 by Frank N. Magill. What began as a one-book publishing philosophy grew to become the foundation for a growing list of reference works commonly known as Magill Books. Magill became publisher and editor-in-chief of Salem Press, which he continued to pursue actively until his death in 1997.

Salem Press was first located on Fifth Avenue in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, directly across the street from the New York Public Library

New York Public Library

The New York Public Library is the largest public library in North America and is one of the United States' most significant research libraries...

. Between 1952 and 1975, Salem Press had an agreement with publisher Harper & Row, and together they published eleven reference titles (Harper & Row in a trade reference edition, Salem Press simultaneously in a library edition).

In 1975, Salem Press moved from New York City, to Englewood Cliffs, before settling in Hackensack New Jersey

New Jersey

New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...

. Not long thereafter, Magill established Salem's editorial office in Pasadena, California

Pasadena, California

Pasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Although famous for hosting the annual Rose Bowl football game and Tournament of Roses Parade, Pasadena is the home to many scientific and cultural institutions, including the California Institute of Technology , the Jet...

, and went on to develop a full line of reference resources.

EBSCO Publishing

EBSCO Publishing

EBSCO Publishing, headquartered in Ipswich, Massachusetts, is an aggregator of premium full-text content. EBSCO Publishing's core business is providing online databases via EBSCOhost to libraries worldwide. EBSCOhost is used by libraries, schools, academic institutions, medical institutions, and...

purchased Salem Press in 2009.