Pluto Press

History: 1969–1987

Pluto Press was set up in London by Richard Kuper in 1969 to support and promote political debate and activism. Its Trotskyist agenda stemmed from its early association with the International Socialists, which broadened to a wider revolutionary left in 1972 when Nina and Michael Kidron joined. Anne Benewick and Ric Sissons joined soon after, and the team eventually reached 16 in number. Pluto Press has been described as "one of the most influential socialist publishing houses of that time". Publishing extensively in the areas of movement history, race politics, Ireland, feminism and sexual politics, early successes included Sheila Rowbotham's Hidden from History: 300 years of women's oppression and the fight against it. and Patrick Kinnersley's Hazards of Work.

Series published during this period include: the Workers' Handbooks; the Marxism Series; Ideas in Action; Militarism, State and Society series; Pluto Plays; Arguments for Socialism; Pluto Crime; Liberation Classics in the 1980s; and the Big Red Diaries. The most successful was the State of the World Atlas series by Michael Kidron and Ronald Segal – visual encapsulations of major social and political trends – which were created and produced by Pluto Press and published by Pan Books.

The target readership was reached by selling directly to trades unions, women's organisations and networks, student unions, and theatre audiences as well as through the network of radical bookshops that emerged in the 1970s. Pluto Press became a distributor and co-publisher of titles generated by Urizen Books and South End Press in the US, and Ink Links in the UK, as well as distributor for Counter-Information Services, History Workshop, Feminist Review and others. A trade sales organisation, Volume Sales, was set up in partnership with Allison & Busby, under the direction of Ric Sissons (who later ran Pluto Australia). New departures in publishing included working with Max Stafford-Clark and the Royal Court Theatre to encourage theatre-goers to read playscripts by printing programmes that included the entire play. In 1987, Pluto Press was bought by Roger van Zwanenberg and Norman Drake. Drake later sold his shares to van Zwanenberg.

University of Michigan Press controversy

Main article: University of Michigan Press#Controversies

Prior to Palgrave Macmillan, Pluto Press was distributed by The University of Michigan Press in the United States. However, in June 2008, The University of Michigan Press terminated this relationship after new guidelines were established for its relationships with external publishing houses.{{cite web |access-date=8 August 2012 |access-date=8 August 2012 |access-date=8 August 2012 |access-date=8 August 2012

Pluto Journals

Launched in 2009, Pluto Journals publishes several open-access journals. As of 2022, the following journals are active:

• Arab Studies Quarterly
• Bethlehem University Journal
• Decolonial Horizons / Horizontes Decoloniales
• Groundings: The Journal of the Walter Rodney Foundation
• Institute of Employment Rights Journal
• International Journal of Critical Diversity Studies
• International Journal of Cuban Studies
• International Journal of Disability and Social Justice
• Islamophobia Studies Journal
• Journal for the Study of Indentureship and its Legacies
• Journal of Fair Trade
• Journal of Global Faultlines
• Journal of Intersectionality
• Policy Perspectives
• Prometheus. Critical Studies in Innovation
• ReOrient: The Journal of Critical Muslim Studies
• Socialist Lawyer
• State Crime Journal
• Work Organisation, Labour & Globalisation
• World Review of Political Economy
• Zanj: The Journal of Critical Global South Studies

References

References

1. [http://www.marston.co.uk/marston-client-list/ Marston Client List]
2. [https://www.plutobooks.com/contact-us/ "Contact Us"], Pluto Press.
3. "Pluto Press - Independent, Radical Publishing".
4. "About Us - Pluto Press - Independent, Radical Publishing".
5. "Pluto Press".
6. [http://www.marxists.org/history/etol/writers/birchall/2003/xx/kidron.html "Michael Kidron and Richard Kuper"]. ''Revolutionary History'', Vol. 8, No. 3, 2003, pp. 281–85. Retrieved 7 February 2013.
7. [http://libsoc.blogspot.co.uk/2003/04/obituaries-2-michael-kidron-most.html "Mike Kidron 1931–2003"], ''Gauche'', 1 April 2003. Retrieved 7 February 2013.
8. (27 March 2003). "Obituary: Michael Kidron". The Guardian.
9. Rowbotham, Sheila, [http://www.marxists.org/subject/women/authors/rowbotham-sheila/hidden-history.htm From ''Hidden from History''], 1973. Transcribed by [[Andy Blunden]], www.marxists.org. Retrieved 8 February 2013.
10. [http://www.inf.brad.ac.uk/~mick/pluto_crime/index.html Images of the Pluto Crime Series covers]. Retrieved 7 February 2013.
11. [http://www.burgundy-report.com/diary/2009/07/red-flag-diary/ Images of the ''Big Red Diary'']. Retrieved 8 February 2013.
12. Herbstein, Denis, [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/feb/26/culture.obituaries "Ronald Segal Obituary"]. ''The Guardian'', 26 February 2008. Retrieved 7 February 2013.
13. Andy Newman, {{usurped
14. [http://artscritic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/short-unhappy-life-of-urizen-books.html "The Short Unhappy Life of Urizen Books"]. Artscritic blogspot: note on Urizen Books, 28 April 2011. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
15. [http://www.znetwork.org/south-end-press-25-years-of-activist-publishing-by-site-administrator "www.znetwork.org: note on South End Press"]. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
16. [http://isbndb.com/d/publisher/ink_links.html "List of Ink Link publications"]. Retrieved 8 February 2013.
17. Kuper, Richard. (6 June 2019). "A History of Pluto Press {{!}} 50 years of Radical Publishing". Pluto Press.
18. [[Caryl Churchill]] Biography [http://www.filmreference.com/film/35/Caryl-Churchill.html lists Pluto Press titles]. Retrieved 8 February 2013
19. [[Snoo Wilson]] Biography [http://www.filmreference.com/film/63/Snoo-Wilson.html lists Pluto Press titles]. Retrieved 8 February 2013.
20. Jennifer Howard, [http://chronicle.com/article/U-of-Michigan-Press-Will-Stop/911 "U. of Michigan Press Will Stop Distributing Titles for 'Radical' Publisher"], ''The Chronicle of Higher Education'', 18 June 2008.
21. "Pluto Journals".