From:
http://www.wwnorton.com/area4/about.htmW. W. Norton & Company, the oldest and largest publishing house owned wholly by its employees, strives to carry out the imperative of its founder to "publish books not for a single season, but for the years" in the areas of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.
The roots of the company date back to 1923, when William Warder Norton and his wife, M. D. Herter Norton, began publishing lectures delivered at the People's Institute, the adult education division of New York City's Cooper Union. The Nortons soon expanded their program beyond the Institute, acquiring manuscripts by celebrated academics from America and abroad.
For years, Norton has been known for its distinguished publishing programs in both the trade and the college textbook areas. Early in its history Norton entered the fields of philosophy, music, and psychology, publishing acclaimed works by Bertrand Russell, Paul Henry Lang, and Sigmund Freud (as his principal American publisher).
In the 1940s Norton expanded its history textbook publishing with Edward McNall Burns's Western Civilizations, now in its twelfth edition, while the 1950s brought the addition of internationally known figures such as the renowned authority on human development, Erik Erikson. Norton also developed a series that would change the teaching of literature courses: the Norton Anthologies. Collectively, these anthologies have sold in excess of 20 million copies.
In the 1960s, the company initiated a poetry program that now includes National Book Award winners such as Adrienne Rich, A. R. Ammons, Gerald Stern, and Ai, as well as America's former poets laureate, Rita Dove and Stanley Kunitz. In 2001, Norton Poets Online went live, featuring a poetry-interest newsletter, workshops with Norton poets, and a complete online catalog of Norton's extensive poetry backlist.
In the past few decades, the firm has published best-selling books by such authors as paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould, physicist Richard Feynman, and historians Peter Gay, Jonathan Spence, Christopher Lasch, and George F. Kennan. The house has also developed a more eclectic list, with prominent titles ranging from Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry to Jane Brody's Good Food Book; Martin Katahn's The Rotation Diet and The T-Factor Diet; Patrick O'Brian's critically acclaimed naval adventures; the novels of Walter Mosley, President Clinton's favorite mystery writer—featuring black detective Easy Rawlins; Liar's Poker, The New New Thing, and Next by Michael Lewis; Paul Krugman's The Return of Depression Economics; and The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger.
At the same time, the college department has strengthened its offerings with leading books in the biological sciences, economics, psychology, political science, and computer science.
Ten years ago, Norton expanded its publishing program with Norton Professional Books, specializing in books on psychotherapy. The Professional Books program has since been expanded into architecture and design.
Since 1984, the company has emerged as a prominent international player with the creation of W. W. Norton & Company Ltd. in London and with agencies in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, and Latin America.
Norton now publishes about 400 books annually in hardcover and paperback.