William Kaufmann, Inc.

"William Kaufmann Inc. stands for the technocratic [approach to book publishing]. The two letters most frequently heard at Kaufmann's modest headquarters in Los Altos, Calif., are "AI" (artificial intelligence), the science of making computers "think." In 1980 a professor from ... Stanford came to Kaufmann, a former editor of science books, with a handbook of artificial intelligence. Most Eastern publishers might have rejected it by return mail; Kaufmann enthusiastically agreed to publish the three-volume set for $120 per set. A science book club alone ordered more than 10,000 sets, surprising everyone but the publisher. "People with unusual projects have been attracted to us since we began in 1972, " observes Kaufmann. "Our image may be technical and scientific, but our range includes music and even art, then and now." [From Time Magazine, 2/21/08].