Basic Books is a book publisher founded in 1950 and located in New York City, now an imprint of Hachette Book Group. It publishes books in the fields of psychology, philosophy, economics, science, politics, sociology, current affairs, and history. History Basic Books originated as a small Greenwich Village-based book club marketed to psychoanalysts. Arthur Rosenthal took over the book club in 1950, and under his ownership it soon began producing original books, mostly in the behavioral sciences. Early successes included Ernest Jones's The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud, as well as works by Claude Lévi-Strauss, Jean Piaget and Erik Erikson. Irving Kristol joined Basic Books in 1960, and helped Basic to expand into the social sciences. Harper & Row purchased the company in 1969. In 1997, HarperCollins announced that it would merge Basic Books into its trade publishing program, effectively closing the imprint and ending its publishing of serious academic books. That same year, Basic was purchased by the newly created Perseus Books Group. Perseus's publishing business was acquired by Hachette Book Group in 2016. In 2018, Seal Press became an imprint of Basic. Authors Basic's list of authors includes: Stephon Alexander Edward E. Baptist H.W. Brands Zbigniew Brzezinski Iris Chang Stephanie Coontz Richard Dawkins Andrea Dworkin Michael Eric Dyson Niall Ferguson Richard Feynman Richard Florida Martin Ford Howard Gardner Jonathan Haidt Victor Davis Hanson Judith L. Herman Christopher Hitchens Douglas Hofstadter Leszek Kolakowski Kevin M. Kruse Lawrence Lessig Robert Nozick Steven Pinker Samantha Power Eugene Rogan Lee Smolin Jacob Soll Jason Sokol Timothy Snyder Tamler Sommers Thomas Sowell Ian Stewart Beverly Daniel Tatum Sherry Turkle Eric Topol Michael Walzer Elizabeth Warren George Weigel Steven Weinberg Frank Wilczek Bee Wilson Richard Wrangham Irvin D. Yalom References External links Basic Books website Perseus Group website (archived February 25, 2017) Samuel G. Freedman on the formation of Perseus Books Book publishing companies based in New York (state) Publishing companies established in 1950 American companies established in 1950 1950 establishments in New York City