Prometheus Books is a publishing company founded in August 1969 by the philosopher Paul Kurtz. The publisher's name was derived from Prometheus, the Titan from Greek mythology who stole fire from Zeus and gave it to man. This act is often used as a metaphor for bringing knowledge or enlightenment. Prometheus Books publishes a range of books, focusing on topics such as science, freethought, secularism, humanism, and skepticism. It has published in the "atheism" category since its founding in 1969, and is considered the "grandfather" of atheist publishing in America. Their headquarters was located in Amherst, New York, and they publish worldwide. Jonathan Kurtz is president of Prometheus. The publisher has roughly 1,700 books currently in print and publishes approximately 95–100 books per year. Since its founding, Prometheus Books has published more than 2,500 books.
Imprints
Prometheus Books obtained the bulk of the books and manuscripts of Humanities Press International in 1998. It has been building and expanding this into a scholarly imprint named Humanity Books. This imprint publishes academic works across a wide spectrum of the humanities and is now distributed by the academic division of Rowman & Littlefield. In March 2005, Prometheus Books launched the science fiction and fantasy imprint Pyr. In October 2012 it launched the crime fiction imprint Seventh Street Books. In 2018, it sold both imprints.
Lawsuits
Prometheus has been involved in two "major libel lawsuits." In 1992 Uri Geller sued Victor J. Stenger and Prometheus Books for libel over his book Physics and Psychics. The suit was dismissed and Geller was required to pay more than $20,000 in costs to the defendant. Geller also sued Prometheus for publishing The Truth About Uri Geller by James Randi, a book that he claimed was defamatory.
Notable authors published
Some notable authors and books published by Prometheus include: Steve Allen
Meeting of Minds : The Complete Scripts, With Illustrations, of the Amazingly Successful PBS-TV Series
Defending the West: A Critique of Edward Said's Orientalism
Robert Zubrin
Partnerships and Sale
In 2013 Prometheus Books partnered with Random House in an effort to increase sales and distribution. In 2019, it was acquired by Rowman & Littlefield, and Random House ceased sales and distribution of its titles as of June 30, 2019. Its building was sold in early 2019 for over $1 Million.
