Yale University Press is a university press associated with Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day, and became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and operationally autonomous. As of 2020, Yale University Press publishes approximately 300 new hardcover and 150 new paperback books annually and has a backlist of about 5,000 books in print. Its books have won five National Book Awards, two National Book Critics Circle Awards and eight Pulitzer Prizes. The press maintains offices in New Haven, Connecticut and London, England. Yale is the only American university press with a full-scale publishing operation in Europe. It was a co-founder of the distributor TriLiteral LLC with MIT Press and Harvard University Press. TriLiteral was sold to LSC Communications in 2018.
Yale University Press and Yale Repertory Theatre jointly sponsor the Yale Drama Series, a playwriting competition. The winner of the annual competition is awarded the David C. Horn Prize of $10,000, publication of his/her manuscript by Yale University Press, and a staged reading at Yale Rep. The Yale Drama Series and David C. Horn Prize are funded by the David Charles Horn Foundation.
Yale University Press is publishing the Future of American Democracy Series, which "aims to examine, sustain, and renew the historic vision of American democracy in a series of books by some of America's foremost thinkers", in partnership with the Future of American Democracy Foundation.
The Lamar Series in Western History
The Lamar Series in Western History was established in 1962 to publish works that enhance the understanding of human affairs in the American West and contribute to a wider understanding of why the West matters in the political, social, and cultural life of America.
Terry Lectures Series
The Dwight H. Terry Lectureship was established in 1905 to encourage the consideration of religion in the context of modern science, psychology, and philosophy. Many of the lectures, which are hosted by Yale University, have been edited into book form by the Yale University Press.
On September 22, 2000, Yale University Press announced a new Yale Nota Bene imprint that would "feature reprints of best-selling and classic Yale Press titles encompassing works of history, religion, science, current affairs, reference and biography, in addition to fiction, poetry and drama."
Controversies
Mangling the typesetting of Mises' ''Human Action''
In 1963, the Press published a revised edition of Ludwig von Mises's Human Action. In the May 5, 1964 issue of National Review, Henry Hazlitt wrote the story "Mangling a Masterpiece", accusing Yale University Press of intentionally typesetting the new edition in an amateurish fashion, due to the Press's differing ideological beliefs.
