In 1843, Macmillan was founded by Scottish brothers Daniel and Alexander Macmillan. They began publishing notable authors such as Charles Kingsley, Thomas Hughes, Francis Turner Palgrave, Christina Rossetti, Matthew Arnold, Lewis Carroll and Rudyard Kipling. In 1869 the company opened their first office in the U.S.called Macmillan Publishing run by a friend of the Macmillan family. The company did not open in Canada until 1905.
Harold Macmillan, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, became chairman of the company until 1986. Thirteen years later Holtzbrinck Publishing Group purchased Macmillan. However a year later, Pearson acquired the Macmillan name in America but Holtzbrinck purchased it back three years later. It was then changed to Macmillan/McGraw-Hill because of the properties Holtzbrinck owned. The name was officially changed back to Macmillan is October 2017. Their company has grown over the past twenty years and developed imprints, created audio books and e-books. E-books account for three to five percent of total book sales.
Bestselling Books published by Macmillan
1. Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll
The book (a sequel to Alice in Wonderland) begins as Alice is sitting with her pet kitten, Kitty, who is playing with a ball of string. Alice tells Kitty a story about “Looking-Glass House,” a magical world on the other side of the mirror where everything is backwards. Suddenly, Alice finds herself on the mantel piece.
2. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
This book tells the story of Jim, a young boy who watches over an inn in an English seaside town with his mother and his gravely ill father. A new guest at the inn, Bill, terrifies everyone at the inn with his raunchy sea songs and threats of violence.
3. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
The novel tells the story of the French Doctor Manette, his 18-year-long imprisonment in the Bastille in Paris and his release to live in London with his daughter Lucie, whom he had never met. The story is set against the conditions that led up to the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror.
4. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Set in rural England in the early 19th century, it follows the Bennet family, which includes five very different sisters. Mrs. Bennet is anxious to see all her daughters married, especially as the modest family estate is to be inherited by William Collins when Mr. Bennet dies.
5. Somebody's Gotta Do It by Adrienne Martini
Back in the fall of 2016, before casting her vote for Hillary Clinton, Adrienne Martini, a knitter, a runner, a mom, and a resident of rural Otsego County in snowy upstate New York, knew who her Senators were, wasn’t too sure who her Congressman was, and had only vague inklings about who her state reps were. She’s always thought of politicians as . . . oily. Then she spent election night curled in bed, texting her husband, who was at work, unable to stop shaking. And after the presidential inauguration, she reached out to Dave, a friend of a friend, who was involved in the Otsego County Democratic Party. Maybe she could help out with phone calls or fundraising? But Dave’s idea was: she should run for office. Someone had to do it.
6. Black Wave by Kim Ghattas
A paradigm-shifting recasting of the modern history of the Middle East, telling the largely unexplored story of the rivalry between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shia Iran--a rivalry born out of the sparks of the 1979 Iranian revolution--that has dramatically transformed the culture, identity, and collective memory of millions of Muslims over four decades. Kim Ghattas follows everyday citizens whose lives have been affected by the geopolitical drama, making her account both immediate and intimate.
7. The Great Rift by James Mann
In a wide-ranging, deeply researched, and dramatic narrative, James Mann explores each man’s biography and philosophical predispositions to show how and why this deep and permanent rupture occurred. Through dozens of original interviews and surprising revelations from presidential archives, he brings to life the very human story of how this influential friendship turned so sour and how the enmity of these two powerful men colored the way America acts in the world.
8. American Rebels by Nine Sankovitch
American Rebelsexplores how the desire for independence cut across class lines, binding people together as well as dividing them—rebels versus loyalists—as they pursued commonly-held goals of opportunity, liberty, and stability. Nina Sankovitch's new book is a fresh history of our revolution that makes readers look more closely at Massachusetts and the small town of Braintree when they think about the story of America’s early years.
9. The Poet King by Ilana C. Myer
After a surprising upheaval, the nation of Tamryllin has a new ruler: Elissan Diar, who proclaims himself the first Poet King. Not all in court is happy with this regime change, as Rianna secretly schemes against him while she investigates a mysterious weapon he hides in the bowels of the palace.Meanwhile, a civil war rages in a distant land, and former Court Poet Lin Amaristoth gathers allies old and new to return to Tamryllin in time to stop the coronation. For the Poet King’s ascension is connected with a darker, more sinister prophecy which threatens to unleash a battle out of legend unless Lin and her friends can stop it.
10. Pride of Eden by Taylor Brown
Retired racehorse jockey and Vietnam veteran Anse Caulfield rescues exotic big cats, elephants, and other creatures for Little Eden, a wildlife sanctuary near the abandoned ruins of a failed development on the Georgia coast. But when Anse’s prized lion escapes, he becomes obsessed with replacing her—even if the means of rescue aren’t exactly legal.
Anse is joined by Malaya, a former soldier who hunted rhino and elephant poachers in Africa; Lope, whose training in falconry taught him to pilot surveillance drones; and Tyler, a veterinarian who has found a place in Anse’s obsessive world.
From the rhino wars of Africa to the battle for the Baghdad Zoo, from the edges of the Okefenokee Swamp to a remote private island off the Georgia coast, Anse and his team battle an underworld of smugglers, gamblers, breeders, trophy hunters, and others who exploit exotic game.