Princeton University Press


Princeton University Press is a nonprofit publisher closely affiliated with Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and society at large.
The press was founded by Whitney Darrow, with the financial support of Charles Scribner, as a printing press to serve the Princeton community in 1905. Its distinctive building was constructed in 1911 on William Street in Princeton. Its first book was a new 1912 edition of John Witherspoon's ''Lectures on Moral Philosophy.''
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History

20th century

Princeton University Press was founded in 1905 by Princeton graduate and manager of the Alumni Weekly, Whitney Darrow. It began as Princeton Alumni Press, a small printing house which published the Princeton Alumni Weekly. The press received financial support from Princeton alumnus, Charles Scribner II. Darrow and Scribner purchased the equipment and assumed the operations of two already existing local publishers, that of the Princeton Alumni Weekly and the Princeton Press. The new press printed both local newspapers, university documents, The Daily Princetonian, and later added book publishing to its activities. Beginning as a small, for-profit printer, Princeton University Press was reincorporated as a nonprofit in 1910.
Since 1911, the press has been headquartered in a purpose-built gothic-style building designed by Ernest Flagg. The design of press's building, which was named the Scribner Building in 1965, was inspired by the Plantin-Moretus Museum, a printing museum in Antwerp, Belgium. In 1912, the Press published its first book, a new edition of Lectures on Moral Philosophy by John Witherspoon.
Princeton University Press established a European office, in Woodstock, England, north of Oxford, in 1999, and opened an additional office, in Beijing, in early 2017.

21st century

Princeton University Press joined The Association of American Publishers trade organization in the Hachette v. Internet Archive lawsuit, which resulted in the removal of access to over 500,000 books from global readers.
In 2025, Princeton University Press was criticized when several members of its staff appeared in Chinese state media on an officially-sanctioned tour of sites in Xinjiang.

Major awards

Six books from Princeton University Press have won Pulitzer Prizes:
Three books published by Princeton University Press have won the National Book Award:Russia Leaves the War by George F. Kennan Monsieur Teste by Paul Valéry, trans. Jackson Mathews The Agony of Christianity and Essays on Faith by Miguel de Unamuno, trans. Anthony Kerrigan (1975, Award for Translated Literature)
Books from Princeton University Press have also been awarded the Bancroft Prize and the Nautilus Book Award.

Papers projects

Multi-volume historical documents projects undertaken by the press include:The Collected Papers of Albert EinsteinThe Writings of Henry D. ThoreauThe Papers of Woodrow Wilson The Papers of Thomas JeffersonKierkegaard's Writings
The Papers of Woodrow Wilson has been called "one of the great editorial achievements in all history."

Bollingen Series

Princeton University Press's Bollingen Series had its beginnings in the Bollingen Foundation, a 1943 project of Paul Mellon's Old Dominion Foundation. From 1945, the foundation had independent status, publishing and providing fellowships and grants in several areas of study, including archaeology, poetry, and psychology. The Bollingen Series was given to the university in 1969.

Other series

Sciences

Humanities

Biology

  • Princeton Field Guides

Selected titles