Putnam, Minton & Balch

When books by Washington Irving and James Fenimore Cooper first appeared, they bore the imprint of G. P. Putnam who started publishing in 1837. Now oldest of U. S. publishing houses of direct descent is G. P. Putnam's Sons, its management having passed to the third generation. Last week the flux that has lately been tossing the book industry about seized this venerable firm.

George Palmer Putnam had three sons, most famed of whom was the late patriarchal Major George Haven Putnam whose anecdotes included his imprisonment by the rebels during the Civil War. When Major Putnam died last winter his stock in the firm, which did not constitute control, passed to his son, Palmer Cosslet Putnam, 30, a geologist. Returning to the U. S. recently from Africa, Palmer Cosslet Putnam inspected the firm of his father and grandfather. What its earnings were only a few intimates know, but publishers would be surprised if recent Putnam profits have been tremendous. President has been Irving Putnam, 78, youngest (and now last surviving) of the Sons. In an enterprise less venerable, he might long since have become Chairman of the Board and yielded title to the Vice President, his able, active nephew George Palmer Putnam, 43, whose father, the late John Bishop Putnam, was the Son between Irving and the late patriarchal Major.

What Geologist Putnam decided to do. and did do last week, was to buy out his cousin, the Vice President. Then, to bring new blood into the old house and fill the executive hole, he arranged a merger with the six-year-old firm of Minton, Balch & Co.

The departure from G. P. Putnam & Sons of George Palmer Putnam was almost as newsworthy as the deal itself. In the past decade he has made himself conspicuous on the publishing scene. He is a man with the dangerous combination of literary ability, business acumen, energy. From him the story of his life is a well and probably oft told tale. Eastern-bred, he went to the University of California for his health. He might not say that if he were not so impressively healthy today. After a brief early connection with G. P. Putnam's Sons, he went to Bend. Ore., in 1910, became publisher and editor of the Bend Bulletin. Bend then had no railroad. It soon had not one but two. needed a mayor. Editor Putnam served two terms, became secretary to the Governor of Oregon from 1914 to 1917. During the War he was a lieutenant of the Field Artillery Reserve Corps, did not go overseas. In 1919 he was president of the Board of Publishers of the American Legion Weekly, then rejoined G. P. Putnam's Sons as treasurer.

The rolling stone thus returned evinced much flair as a publicist. Expeditions to strange places took his fancy. He developed a close contact with the New York Times and put G. P. Putnam's Sons into the business of publishing expeditions. Putnam books this autumn, for example, include Richard Evelyn Byrd's Little America, Scout Paul Siple's A Boy Scout With Byrd, volumes by Sea-Diver William Beebe, Artist-Explorer Rockwell Kent, Jungle-Tramper Mrs. Martin Johnson. Even Publisher Putnam's son has been publicized as an explorer (David Goes A-Voyaging by David Binney Putnam, in 1928 when he was 22).

The Putnam prominence in aviation publishing (Lindbergh's We, Harry Frank Guggenheim's The Seven Skies) is also traceable to this versatile Putnam, who was among Amelia Earhart's backers and helped produce Wings, This venture into cinema led to the formation of Talking Picture Epics, Inc., George Palmer Putnam, vice president, producers of Com- modore George M. Dyott's Hunting Tigers in India, Across the World with Mr. and Mrs. Martin Johnson, Robert Cushman Murphy's Bottom of the World.

What Publicist Putnam intends to do in the future is not known. He may expand his cinematic activities, may publish on his own, may retire, may go off exploring Perhaps he will do all these things. His cryptic statement of plans last week was this: "If you played golf twelve years, you wouldn't stop all at once, would you?"

The firm with which G. P. Putnam's Sons will merge (through an exchange of stock) has published John Dewey's The Quest for Certainty and Alice Grant Rosman's present big-selling The Young and Secret. Minton, Balch & Co., Inc. for the immediate future at least, will be run as a separate department, "benefiting from the wide Putnam scope. Palmer Cosslet Putnam's new partners are Melville Minton. 45. a big-chested, hardworking salesman with a business head; and Earle Balch, 36, the curly-headed, smiling, amiable, pianoplaying, song-singing, artistic half of the combination, the one who gives the tea parties to the authors while Partner Minton is out on the road selling their books. The line-up of the new firm: Irving Putnam, president; Minton, vice president; Palmer Cosslet Putnam, treasurer; Balch, secretary. Another vice president will be Irving Putnam's son, Edmund Whitman Putnam.

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