MIT Press Reveals Its Most Influential Books

Happy anniversary to the MIT Press, which is celebrating 50 years of scholarly publishing with a look at some beloved titles. But first, a few fun details.

Historical facts about the MIT Press

• The first MIT Press author was Max Born (1882-1970). Problems of Atomic Dynamics was a series of lectures that he gave at MIT.
• It was originally called Technology Press. The name changed to MIT Press in 1962.
• The MIT Press colophon was designed by Muriel Cooper in 1963. She later cofounded the Visual Language Workshop at the Media Lab.
• The neon colophon sign (right) was created in 1982 by artist Alejandro Siña. It glowed for 30 years until the power transformer failed. Now, thanks to an upgrade to modern, high-voltage gear, the sign is buzzing with light once again.

Read about the history of the MIT Press (pdf) and the anniversary thoughts and share your own memory.

To mark the occasion, the Press dedicated 50 days' worth of blog posts to spotlighting some of their most influential publications. The books featured are notable for a number of reasons: lifetime sales and citations, the number of printings or editions, and the recognition of the impact of the work by other scholars (whether it prompted more research or offered a new pedagogical approach or  sparked a new area of inquiry).

The first post celebrates Language, Thought, and Reality: Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf by Benjamin Lee Whorf, edited by John B. Carroll (1956) and Word and Object by Willard Van Orman Quine (1960).

Other posts showcase Nightwork: A History of Hacks and Pranks at MIT by Institute Historian T. F. Peterson and Introduction to Algorithms by Thomas H. Cormen SM '86, PhD '93; Charles E. Leiserson (MIT professor), Ronald L. Rivest (MIT Professor) and Clifford Stein SM '89, PhD '92.

Fun facts about Introduction to Algorithms

Third edition

• MIT Press has ordered 576,230 lbs. of paper (to date)
• Completed three printings (so far)

Second edition

• MIT Press ordered 1,087,469 lbs. of paper
• Completed 12 printings

Read a reflection on the book by coauthor Cormen.

The Press has also compiled a list of 50 influential articles published by its journals division—which has included more than 80 journals since 1989. Each of these select articles will be freely available through the end of 2012.