Series IV. Publication Records, 1890s-1980s, inclusive

The subseries includes files of cards by title summarizing the contract terms for that title. (The contracts themselves are not in the collection.) There are some variations in the pre-printed forms used, with one used until about 1920, then another used through the end of the date range. The earlier form has somewhat less data fields than the later form. Overall, though, the summaries allow for various data including basic description (e.g., number of words/length, format, date of publication, dates contract was sent and the signed copy received, etc.); compensation data (royalties and payment terms, advance information, price of publication, etc.); and rights information (name under copyright, serial rights ownership, publication plans, international (including Canadian) rights, media rights, use of illustrations, etc.). Although the pre-printed cards include these fields and others for granular detail, only those fields relevant to a contract are completed.

The cards are in three sets, with the first two similar in content, differing only in that they generally relate to different time periods. The bulk dates of the first are 1890s to 1930s and the second set are 1930s to 1970s, but there is overlap. The third set also summarizes contracts, but appears to be oriented more to royalties and other payments related to reprintings, with notes on actual payments.

This subseries consists largely of copyright cards that provide both the copyright number used by the Library of Congress and the date filed and renewed, among other information. Over the course of Dodd, Mead's operations and acquisitions of various companies they updated these cards and their arrangements several times, with some series organized alphabetically or by renewal date on index cards and others in ledgers chronologically. The original organization of each of these groups of records was maintained.

This subseries contains two sets of printing records on cards. The first set spans from 1920s-1940s and the second from the 1950s-1980s. While the physical format of the two sets differ, they each contain similar information concerning the printing specifications of the book (whether there are illustrations, etc.) and how many were printed.