The publishing house Frederick Warne was founded in London in 1865 by a bookseller turned publisher who gave his own name to the firm. The new company followed an earlier association between Warne and George Routledge, who also went on to found his own publishing company. During the second half of the nineteenth century, Warne's firm built a reputation as a publisher of children's literature. In 1888 Warne set up an American branch of the firm in New York. This was incorporated in 1930 as Frederick Warne and Company.
Frederick Warne retired toward the end of the century, and the business was taken over by his three sons, Harold, Fruing, and Norman. In 1983, Frederick Warne was acquired by Penguin Books and was set up as a separate division of Penguin in 1986.
