New Directions Publishing Corp.

New Directions Publishing Corp. was founded in 1936 by James Laughlin, then a Harvard University sophomore. The company was incorporated in 1964 as the New Directions Publishing Corporation and operates from New York City, and its books today are distributed by WW Norton & Company.

The New Directions Publishing Corporation, of New York City and Norfolk, Conn., was founded in 1936 by poet/publisher James Laughlin. New Directions' publishing program focused on poetry, experimental writing, and quality translations of foreign literature, as well as bringing classics back in to print. During the years 1936-1991, New Directions published an annual anthology of avant-garde writing.

The New Directions Publishing Corporation, of New York City and Norfolk, Conn., was founded in 1936 by poet/publisher James Laughlin.

James Laughlin (1914-1997) began his publishing career as the literary editor of New Democracy, a magazine devoted to the economic theory Social Credit. Here Laughlin published Modern writers such as Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein, and William Carlos Williams in a section of the magazine entitled "New Directions." In 1936, while in his Junior year at Harvard University, Laughlin gathered the best of these pieces and put them together in the first annual anthology, New Directions in Prose and Poetry. Thus marked the beginning of the New Directions Publishing Company.

New Directions' publishing program focused on poetry, experimental writing, and quality translations of foreign literature, as well as bringing classics back into print. They are the main publisher for Ezra Pound, Tennessee Williams, and William Carlos Williams. Other authors whose work they have published include: Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Henry Miller, Thomas Merton, Kenneth Patchen, Kenneth Rexroth, Delmore Schwartz, and Dylan Thomas. The company was incorporated in 1964 as the New Directions Publishing Corporation and continues to operate from New York City.