Grey House Publishing: A History

Grey House Publishing launched its first directory The Directory of Mail Order Catalogs in 1981, the year it was founded by its President, Richard Gottlieb, and Publisher, Leslie Mackenzie. Since then Grey House has published over 80 titles, as well as countless annual or semi-annual editions of many of these directories and reference works that subscribers and libraries have come to rely as standards in their fields. The annual Directory of Mail Order Catalogs, for example, still enjoys a robust circulation 28 years after its first edition.

Developing Product Lines
By the early ‘90s, three clear product lines began to emerge – Business, Health and Education. Each area soon had 8-10 titles, and with such well-known works as the 3-volume Food & Beverage Market Place, formerly the 100+ year old Thomas Food Industry Register, The Complete Directory for People with Disabilities and Educators Resource Directory.

Adding Statistics, Economics and Demographics
Grey House acquired Universal Reference Publications in 1999 and Toucan Valley Publications in 2000, adding such highly regarded titles as America’s Top-Rated Cities, The Comparative Guide to American Suburbs, and Profiles of America. This helped launch another distinct product line – Statistics, Economics & Demographics.

We added to the new line with The Value of the Dollar in 1999. This remarkably successful book combines economics with history and enjoys a wide circulation to this day across all high school, academic and public libraries.

Expanding into Reference Books
The Value of the Dollar’s success helped move Grey House into the reference arena. In 2000 we launched the renowned Working Americans series with the first volume of what is now an eight volume set. Since then, we have added steadily to our reference line with such well-received encyclopedias as The Encyclopedia of Prisoners of War & Internment, From Suffrage to the Senate, The Religious Right: A Reference Handbook and Political Corruption in America. In addition, we explored the arts with our Performing Arts Directory, and a two volume encyclopedia on World Cultural Leaders of the 20th & 21st Centuries.

International Growth and in Publishing Partnerships
In 2006 Grey House Publishing acquired the Micromedia/Proquest directory publishing group based in Toronto and Grey House Publishing Canada was launched. A Canadian company still based in Toronto, this outstanding group produces print and on-line versions of some of the largest and most important directories in Canada including the Canadian Almanac and Directory. Visit www.greyhouse.ca to find out more about our Canadian operation which expands every year.

In addition we have joined in partnership with other information compilers to become the publisher of their print editions. We are pleased to be the publishers of the Medical Device Register, all of the Street.com Rating Guides in print, and three major Gale encyclopedias on American Industries, Emerging Industries and Global Industries.

New & Forthcoming
A few highlights include a two-volume set on Rural America, a new Working Series Volume IX on working Americans during the earliest times in our history in addition to Volume VIII on immigration available now. There will be new annual editions on many of our standard titles this year including Sports Market Place Directory, Food & Beverage Market Place and Older Americans Information Directory. The later is a multiple award winner year after year.

Grey House Online
Grey House Publishing offers their directory data in fully searchable Online Databases. Varied search criteria allows for custom searches by Product Category, Geographic Area, Sales Volume, Keyword, Subject and more. Visit www.greyhouse.com for a free search of these Online Databases. Many of the reference books and encyclopedias are available as e-books as well. Look for the e-book symbol near the title.

Praise for Grey House
All of Grey House directories and reference books are carefully compiled and researched, and offer content that is comprehensive and current. Data is presented in an easy-to-use/easy-to-find format that researchers have grown to look for. Grey House receives continuous praise...

"...excellent resource, valuable tool, highly recommended..." -Choice

"...immensely useful and user-friendly, the first of its kind..."-Booklist

"...mandatory purchase, well-designed, essential and up-to-date..."-ARBA