The Pequot Press,
whose name was adapted from a local Indian tribe, was founded
in 1947 as an adjunct to the Stonington Printing Company in
Stonington, Conn. Twenty years later, in 1967, the new owner
brought the still small publishing company down the coastline
to Essex, Conn. and styled it as a publisher to the historical
societies and assisted neighboring towns and other local groups
with their publishing requirements.
In 1970 the company moved to Chester, Conn. and expanded
the basic publishing program to books of New England history,
biography, architecture, antiques, genealogy and travel. The
company published an average of 15 new books per year, including
trade paperback editions of Guide to the Recommended Country
Inns of New England and Factory Store Guide to New England.
The Boston Globe Newspaper Company purchased the Press in
February 1981, formalizing an association that had begun in
1978 when the company name was changed to The Globe Pequot
Press. Since 1979 the company has grown
at an average annual rate of 25 percent, through organic growth
of the core-publishing program. In 1986 Globe purchased a
similar regional publishing company in the Southeast, East
Woods Press, and in 1987 20 titles were purchased from Pacific
Search Press, a publisher located in the Pacific Northwest.
With the acquisition of the award-winning international city
and country guides from Cadogan Books p.l.c. of London, England,
Gateway Books, ICS Books and most recently Falcon Publishing
and Lyons Press, Globe Pequot Press is now the largest publisher
of regional travel in the United States, with an exceptional
concentration in the outdoor recreation specialty.
In the late 1980s the company began an international expansion
of its product offerings by distributing some of the most
respected brand names in travel publishing, each with an identifiable
editorial specialty. These specialties include: Appalachian
Mountain Club Books of Boston, Mass., Ducks Unlimited, of
Memphis, Tenn., Everyman Chess of London, England, Day Hikes
Books, Inc., of Pismo Beach, Calif., Menasha Ridge Press of
Birmingham, Ala., Mobil Travel Guides of Park Ridge, Ill.,
New Holland Publishers of London, England, Oval Books of London,
England, Special Hotels of London, England, Thomas Cook Publishing
of Peterborough, England, Trailblazer publications of Surrey,
England, Vacation Works Publications of Oxford, England, Waterford
Press Ltd. of Chandler Ariz., Western Horseman of Colorado
Springs, Colo., and Woodall Publications of Ventura, Calif.
Globe is also the North American co-publisher for Alastair
Sawday Publishing Co. Ltd of Bristol, England and Bradt Travel
Guides of Bucks, England.
In 1992 Globe Pequot Press relocated to a custom-designed
building in Old Saybrook, Conn. consolidating all publishing
and fulfillment operations into one 30,000 square foot facility.
In May of 1988, Globe Pequot became a subsidiary of McCaw
Cellular Communications, Inc. of Kirland, Wash., which in
1994 was acquired by AT&T of Basking Ridge, N.J. and renamed
AT&T Wireless Services, Inc. On April 11, 1997, Globe
Pequot was purchased by Morris Communications.
Globe moved once again in November 1999, and began the new
century in enlarged executive offices based in Guilford, Conn.
to accommodate its burgeoning staff, with a new warehousing
facility centrally located in Springfield, Tenn. Today, more
than 50 years after the publication of its first monograph,
The Globe Pequot Press has established an international reputation
for publication of outstanding regional guides to a myriad
of travel destinations in this country and around the world
and is among the top three sources for travel books in the
United States.
