Yale Bulletin and Calendar

October 5, 2007|Volume 36, Number 5

Yale Press acquires the renowned
Anchor Bible Series from Doubleday

The Anchor Bible Series, a renowned collection of more than 115 volumes of biblical scholarship, has been acquired by Yale University Press from Doubleday.

The Yale University Press will now publish all backlist and new volumes in the series, to be renamed Anchor Yale Bible.

This sale will enable Doubleday to enhance its existing focus on publishing general religious titles for the trade market, while strengthening Yale University Press’ offerings and advancing its goal of publishing serious works that further scholarly investigation and advance interdisciplinary inquiry. Yale Press plans to develop the series with new interdisciplinary ways of studying the Bible while taking advantage of the new technologies within digital platforms.

Conceived in 1956 under the guidance of biblical scholar William Foxwell Albright (1891-1971), the Anchor Bible Series includes:

• The Anchor Bible Commentary Series, a book-by-book translation and exegesis of the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament and the Apocrypha that today includes more than 80 volumes;

• The Anchor Bible Dictionary, a six-volume set that contains more than 6,000 entries from 800 international scholars;

• The Anchor Bible Reference Library, an open-ended series that includes more than 25 volumes focused on archeology, anthropology, history, languages, literature, philosophy and theology, among other areas of scholarship.

Today the series — which has been edited for 50-years by noted biblical scholar David Noel Freedman — has more than three million copies in print.

Under the agreement, Yale University Press will be able to publish all the remaining volumes in the Anchor Bible Commentary Series, beginning in 2008. All existing inventory and open orders for books in the series are being transferred from Doubleday to Yale University Press, which plans to make all three series available in digital versions.

Stephen Rubin, president and publisher of the Doubleday Broadway Publishing Group, said: “The Anchor Bible has been an integral part of Doubleday’s history, and we are proud of the lasting — and unparalleled — contributions to interfaith biblical scholarship made by the many distinguished authors we have had the privilege of publishing under this unprecedented series. We believe we have found, in Yale University Press, the perfect home for each of the many volumes in the series that have already been published as well as for those yet to come.”

John Donatich, director of the Yale Press, noted: “The Anchor Bible Series fits perfectly with the Press’s goals and objectives, adding to our already distinguished list in religious history and providing a foundation for new areas. We are thrilled to have the opportunity to develop the series, revising and updating these classic texts for a wider group of students, seminarians, scholars, and the general public as well as customizing them for a new generation of digital users.”

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