Berkley Books is an American publisher started in 1955 by Charles Byrne and Frederic Klein. It is currently owned by the Penguin Group, which is part of Penguin Random House.

History

Berkley Books was started as an independent company in 1955. It was founded by Charles Byrne and Frederick Klein, who had previously worked for Avon. They named the company "Chic News Company" at first, but soon changed it to Berkley Publishing Co. The name "Berkley" was created by combining parts of their last names and was not related to the philosopher George Berkeley or the city of Berkeley, California. Under the leadership of editor-in-chief Thomas Dardis, Berkley began publishing a wide range of fiction and non-fiction books, including reprinted works and original mass-market paperbacks. The company had a strong focus on science fiction, such as books by Robert A. Heinlein and Frank Herbert’s Dune.

In 1965, Berkley was purchased by G. P. Putnam's Sons. Later, Berkley started publishing hardcover books under its own imprint, including both science fiction and non-fiction titles. Examples of non-fiction books published during this time include Plain Speaking: An Oral Biography of Harry S. Truman (1973) and The Search for J.F.K. (1976). When Putnam acquired other companies, such as Grosset & Dunlap and Playboy Press, Berkley added the Jove, Ace, and Playboy Press book lists to its own. Over time, the Playboy list became part of Berkley, while Jove and Ace remained separate imprints.

In 1985, Berkley published a paperback reprint of The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy. This led to increased interest in publishing military fiction and technothrillers. Berkley’s marketing efforts at military bases helped promote the reprint of Flight of the Old Dog by Dale Brown. In 1996, the Penguin Group bought Putnam. When Penguin merged with Random House in 2013 to form Penguin Random House, Berkley was combined with New American Library, a larger paperback line. The Berkley name continued to be used for this program, which is now part of Penguin Random House’s Penguin Adult group. Berkley now publishes books in mass-market paperback, trade paperback, and hardcover formats.

In December 2008, Berkley stopped publishing Angel at the Fence, a Holocaust memoir by Herman Rosenblat, after it was found that the book’s main events were not true. In 2011, Berkley launched its ebook imprint, InterMix. In September 2012, Berkley announced plans to publish a trilogy of erotic romance novels by Maya Banks, which were compared to the Fifty Shades series.

In 2015, the New American Library was merged into Berkley. In April 2015, Berkley signed a contract with self-published author Jasinda Wilder. In January 2016, Berkley was combined with Penguin’s Putnam/Dutton division. Ivan Held became president of Berkley Books. In 2020, Berkley announced two new horror books by Grady Hendrix.

• Ace Books
• Jove Books
• New American Library

Comic books

• 1976–1977: The Bionic Woman (paperback, Berkley Novel)
• 1977: From the Land Beyond Beyond (softcover, a book about the films of Willis O'Brien and Ray Harryhausen)
• 1988: New Comics (softcover)
• 1998: X-Men Empire's End (paperback, Berkley Novel)