This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Beginner Books" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR(August 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
Beginner Books is the Random House imprint for young children ages 3–9, co-founded by Phyllis Cerf with Ted Geisel, more often known as Dr. Seuss, and his wife Helen Palmer Geisel. Their first book was Dr. Seuss's The Cat in the Hat (1957), whose title character appears in the brand's logo. Cerf compiled a list of 379 words as the basic vocabulary for young readers, along with another 20 slightly harder "emergency" words.[1] No more than 200 words were taken from that list to write The Cat in the Hat. Subsequent books in the series were modeled on the same requirement.[2]
Beginner Books had only four titles in their catalog in 1958. Two years later, they were earning 1 million dollars a year. Random House acquired Beginner Books in 1960[3] and was the largest publisher of children's books in the United States.
^Judith Morgan and Neil Morgan, Dr. Seuss & Mr. Geisel: A Biography (Da Capo Press, 1996), ISBN 978-0-306-80736-7.
^Excerpt available at Google Books.
^"RANDOM HOUSE EXPANDS; Acquiring Stock of Beginner Books, Pending Approval". The New York Times. July 29, 1960. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 6, 2021.
BeginnerBooks is the Random House imprint for young children ages 3–9, co-founded by Phyllis Cerf with Ted Geisel, more often known as Dr. Seuss, and...
This list of Berenstain Bears books includes many in the picture book series (such as "BeginnerBooks" and "First Time Books") and the illustrated children's...
Penguin Books Limited is a British publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers...
Vintage Books is a trade paperback publishing imprint of Penguin Random House originally established by Alfred A. Knopf in 1954. The company was acquired...
publishers Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. and BeginnerBooks were acquired by Random House in 1960, followed by Pantheon Books in 1961; works continue to be published...
Bantam Books is an American publishing house owned entirely by parent company Random House, a subsidiary of Penguin Random House; it is an imprint of...
socialite, writer, publisher, and actress. She was a co-founder of BeginnerBooks. Fraser was born Helen Brown Nichols in Kansas City, Missouri. Her mother...
Ballantine Books is a major American book publisher that is a subsidiary of German media conglomerate Bertelsmann. Ballantine was founded in 1952 by Ian...
children's books of all time. The book's success led to the creation of BeginnerBooks, a publishing house centered on producing similar books for young...
expanded further into graphic novels. Pantheon re-issued books in the graphic-based "...For Beginners" series (originally published by Writers and Readers...
BBC Books (also formerly known as BBC Publishing) is an imprint majority-owned and managed by Penguin Random House through its Ebury Publishing division...
and Ham is a children's book by Dr. Seuss. It was published by the BeginnerBooks imprint of Random House on August 12, 1960. The book follows Sam-I-am...
Riverhead Books is an imprint of Penguin Group (USA) founded in 1994 by Susan Petersen Kennedy. Writers published by Riverhead include Ali Sethi, Marlon...
Viking Press (formally Viking Penguin, also listed as Viking Books) is an American publishing company owned by Penguin Random House. It was founded in...
Philomel Books is a children's literature imprint of Penguin Books USA. The imprint was founded by Ann Beneduce, who was succeeded as publisher by Patricia...
illustrator and creative art director (for a short time early on) for BeginnerBooks. He wrote the best selling children's book, Put Me in the Zoo. As Author...
Jove Books, formerly known as Pyramid Books, is an American paperback and eBook publishing imprint, founded as an independent paperback house in 1949 by...
Schocken Books is a book publishing imprint of Penguin Random House that specializes in Jewish literary works. Originally established in 1931 by Salman...
in the Beginner Book series were Stan and Jan Berenstain, P. D. Eastman, Roy McKie, and Helen Palmer Geisel (Seuss's wife). The BeginnerBooks dominated...
Berkley Books is now an imprint of the Penguin Group. Berkley Books began as an independent company in 1955. It was founded as "Chic News Company" by...
Puffin Books is a longstanding children's imprint of the British publishers Penguin Books. Since the 1960s, it has been among the largest publishers of...
Del Rey Books is an imprint of the Random House Group, a division of Penguin Random House. The imprint was established in 1977 under the editorship of...
Global Information