Founded in 1903, our Press was started with three hand-powered printing presses. Our first director was Jon Wilson, who had been the university’s publishing agent. Wilson began by printing a journal that featured the academic writings of professors at the university. His goal was to promote public engagement with the research being conducted at Cartwright University. Eventually, Wilson published 8 titles a year while overseeing the Press.
In 1918, Wallace Simms took over as director of the Press. This proved to be a turning point. Wallace secured $100,000 of funding during his first year, and under his direction, the Press greatly expanded the number of publications it released to, uh, over 57 in one year. Simms also began publishing a book for the public that was based on lectures from professors visiting Cartwright University. The first book of these lectures focused solely on medicine, but eventually expanded to all areas of study, including humanities, politics, science, and engineering. Simms also started publishing literary fiction and poetry. In 1934, during Simms’s last year as director, one of the titles he published was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. That title sold over 150,000 copies and a second edition was printed in 1965. This greatly increased attention for the Press and ensured its reputation as a serious publisher in the literary world.
Originally, the Press was housed in the basement of Cartwright Hall. Today, it is located in Simms Hall, which is located on our main campus. The Press now contains a special collections library with over 1,000 texts in Greek. We also have a digital library with over 50,000 different texts available.
We currently employ 57 full-time staff members. We also offer scholarships for three graduate students each year. These scholarships include full tuition remission, and require 10 hours per week of work. We believe it’s an exciting opportunity for students to gain experience working in publishing and contributing to the excellent quality of Cartwright University Press. The scholarship students are involved in marketing and promotion by serving as public relations assistants for current authors.
This year, we are striving to maintain our place as leader among university presses in the United States. We are hoping to release an open-access online archive for all of our texts, which should be finished by the end of May. These texts will be available to be purchased and read online through several e-bookselling partners, and also through our website, www.cartwrightpress.edu. Furthermore, a recent grant has given us the funding to increase the number of titles we print. Our goal is to release 276 new books this year.
I invite you all to visit the Press and take a look at the wonderful collection of books we have printed over the years. Feel free to stop by anytime, or look us up online and scroll through our catalogue of impressive and award-winning titles. Thank you for your attention.