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| Parent company | Random House |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1921 |
| Founder | George T. Delacorte Jr. |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Headquarters location | New York City |
| Publication types | Books |
| Imprints | Dial, Delacorte, Laurel Leaf, Yearling |
| Official website | randomhousebooks.com/dell-delacorte-books |
Dell Publishing Company, Inc. is an American publisher of books, magazines and comic books, that was founded in 1921 by George T. Delacorte Jr. with $10,000 (approx. $145,000 in 2021), two employees and one magazine title, I Confess, and soon began turning out dozens of pulp magazines, which included penny-a-word detective stories, articles about films, and romance books (or "smoochies" as they were known in the slang of the day).
During the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, Dell was one of the largest publishers of magazines, including pulp magazines. Their line of humor magazines included 1000 Jokes, launched in 1938. From 1929 to 1974, they published comics under the Dell Comics line, the bulk of which (1938–62) was done in partnership with Western Publishing. In 1943, Dell entered into paperback book publishing with Dell Paperbacks. They also used the book imprints of Dial Press, Delacorte Books, Delacorte Press, Yearling Books, and Laurel Leaf Library.
Dell was acquired by Doubleday in 1976, which was itself acquired by Bertelsmann in 1986. Bertelsmann later consolidated Dell with other imprints into Random House.