Overlook Acquires Duckworth

Peter Mayer, who shuttled between New York and London as chief executive of Penguin, is about to resume his transatlantic commute following the acquisition of the U.K.'s Duckworth by Mayer and Overlook Press. "This is an acquisition I really wanted to happen," Mayer said. The asset-only purchase involves approximately 1,100 titles, mostly in the academic and classics field. Duckworth had once been the publisher of such highly regarded authors as Virginia Woolf, D.H. Lawrence and Beryl Bainbridge, but Mayer said the deal happened so fast he was not sure what rights Duckworth owns to many of its most famous authors' works.

Duckworth will publish at least seven new titles this year as well as 50 titles in its classics line. Mayer said he will inject new capital into Duckworth and promised "a quite substantial increase" in the number of new books released annually beginning in 2004. He said he plans to build Duckworth's business in the general trade area, which could involve some editorial overlap with Overlook. But before Mayer puts any new editorial initiatives together, he said the first order of business is to find new offices for Duckworth's staff of 10.

This is Overlook's second niche acquisition in the last year. In April 2002, it bought Ardis Press, which specializes in the publication of Russian-to-English translations.