Editing Basic Books (section)

==History==
Basic Books originated as a small [[Greenwich Village]]-based book club marketed to psychoanalysts. Arthur Rosenthal took over the book club in 1950, and under his ownership it soon began producing original books, mostly in the behavioral sciences. Early successes included Ernest Jones's ''The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud'', as well as works by [[Claude Lévi-Strauss]], [[Jean Piaget]] and [[Erik Erikson]]. [[Irving Kristol]] joined Basic Books in 1960, and helped Basic to expand into the social sciences. [[Harper & Row]] purchased the company in 1969.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Basic-Books-70th_web.pdf |title=Basic Books: 70 Years of Publishing Excellence, 1950–2020 |website=[[Hachette Book Group]] |access-date=March 23, 2024}}</ref>

In 1997, [[HarperCollins]] announced that it would merge Basic Books into its trade publishing program, effectively closing the imprint and ending its publishing of serious academic books.  That same year, Basic was purchased by the newly created [[Perseus Books Group]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E04E6D9153EF931A1575BC0A961958260|title=HarperCollins Selling Basic Books Unit to Venture Capital Firm|date=August 22, 1997|author=Doreen Carvajal|work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref> Perseus's publishing business was acquired by [[Hachette Book Group]] in 2016.<ref>Natasha Onwuemezi, "Perseus sale to Hachette Book Group completed", ''The Bookseller'', [http://www.thebookseller.com/news/perseus-sale-hachette-book-group-confirmed-325625 1 April 2016]</ref> In 2018, '''Seal Press''' became an imprint of Basic.<ref>{{Cite web|title = Hachette Book Group Reorganizes Lines, Announces About 25 Layoffs As DiPreta Departs|work = Publishers Lunch|access-date = December 30, 2018|date = November 13, 2018|url = https://lunch.publishersmarketplace.com/2018/11/hachette-book-group-reorganizes-lines-announces-layoffs-as-dipreta-departs/}}</ref>