Moses Woodruff Dodd established M. W. Dodd in New York in 1840 as a publisher of religious books, having previously been associated in religious publishing with John S. Taylor as Taylor and Dodd (1839-1840). Moses Dodd retired in 1870 and his son, Frank H. Dodd, and a nephew, Edward S. Mead, took over the firm, which became Dodd and Mead; it became Dodd, Mead and Company in 1876 when Bleecker Van Wagenen joined the partnership. The company also operated as a bookseller between 1870 and 1910.
From 1870 the company began publishing general works, and by the turn of the century had become one of the largest and most respected publishing companies in America. Frank Dodd frequently travelled to Europe and brought back many books to be published in reprint by Dodd, Mead and Company, including works of authors such as Anthony Trollope, G. K. Chesterton, Joseph Conrad, Tolstoy, H. G. Wells, and the Australian works of Henry Kingsley. After 1900 the firm capitalised on the demand for the work of American authors, selling millions of copies of the books of some writers, and publishing the work of new American poets and playwrights. Between 1895 and 1918 it published the prominent literary journal, the Bookman. In 1922 Dodd, Mead purchased the American branch of the John Lane Company, bringing a range of new authors, including Agatha Christie. The firm became known also as a leading publisher of detective and mystery novels.
In 1981 Dodd, Mead became a subsidiary of Thomas Nelson Publishers of Nashville, a fifth generation Dodd, Jonathan, continuing as vice-president for subsidiary rights. In 1986 Dodd, Mead was sold to the Gamut Publishing Company, where its imprint continued.
