McFarland & Company, Inc., is an American independent book publisher based in Jefferson, North Carolina, that specializes in academic and reference works, as well as general-interest adult nonfiction.
Its president is Rhonda Herman. Its current Editor-in-Chief is Steve Wilson. Its former president and current President Emeritus is Robert Franklin, who founded the company in 1979.[2][3]
McFarland employs a staff of about 50, and as of 2019 had published 7,800 titles.[3][4] McFarland’s initial print runs average 600 copies per book.[5]
Subject matter
McFarland & Company focuses mainly on selling to libraries. It also utilizes direct mailing to connect with enthusiasts in niche categories.[6] The company is known for its sports literature, especially baseball history, as well as books about chess, military history, and film.[7][8] In 2007, the Mountain Times wrote that McFarland publishes about 275 scholarly monographs and reference book titles a year;[4][9] Robert Lee Brewer reported in 2015 that the number is about 350.[10]
Publications
Notable book series
The following book series are among those published by McFarland & Company:
- “Contributions to Zombie Studies” (edited by Kyle William Bishop)[11]
- “Critical Explorations in Science Fiction and Fantasy” (edited by C. W. Sullivan III and Donald Palumbo)[12]
Scholarly journals
The following academic journals are published by McFarland & Company:
- Base Ball: A Journal of the Early Game – focuses on “baseball’s early history, from its protoball roots to 1920”[13]
- Black Ball: A Journal of the Negro Leagues – focuses on “all subjects related to black baseball, including the Negro major and minor leagues, and pre–Negro league play”[13]
- Clues: A Journal of Detection – focuses on “all aspects of mystery and detective material in print, television and movies”[13]
- Journal of Information Ethics – focuses on information ethics and information science[10]
- Journal of Territorial and Maritime Studies – focuses on “global territorial and maritime issues”[14][13]
- North Korean Review – focuses on an understanding of North Korea‘s “complexities and the threat it presents to global stability”[13]
McFarland Award
The Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) presents the annual McFarland-SABR Baseball Research Award, presented to authors of the best articles on baseball history or biography completed during the preceding calendar year (published or unpublished).[15] The award was formerly known as the Macmillan-SABR Baseball Research Award from 1987 to 2000.
Winners
2025
- Mark Armour, “Satchel’s Wild Ride: How Satchel Paige Finally Made the Hall of Fame,” SABR Baseball Research Journal, Fall 2024
- Richard J. Puerzer, “The 1939 Negro National League Championship Series,” The 1939 Baltimore Elite Giants (SABR, 2024)
2024
- Gary Belleville, “The Trailblazing Canadian Trio That Powered the Rockford Peaches Dynasty of 1948-50,” Journal of Canadian Baseball / Revue du Baseball Canadien, November 1, 2023
2023
- Charlie Bevis, “Four Girls in Spring 1974: The First Foot-Soldiers of Female Inclusion in Little League Baseball,” SABR Baseball Research Journal, Spring 2022
- Yoichi Nagata, Robert K. Fitts, and Mark Brunke, “The 1921 Native American Tours of Japan,” Nichibei Yakyu: US Tours of Japan, Volume 1: 1907-1958 (SABR, 2022)
- John Racanelli, “Death and Taxes and Baseball Card Litigation,” SABR Baseball Cards Blog, January 8-December 14, 2022
2022
- Bruce Allardice, “Runs, Runs, and More Runs: Pre-Professional Baseball, By the Numbers,” SABR Baseball Research Journal, Fall 2021
2021
- Steve Gietschier, “Before We Forget: The Birth, Life, and Death of The Sporting News Research Center,” SABR Baseball Research Journal, Spring 2020
- Robert H. Schaefer, “The Fair-Foul Hitting Era: 1864-1876,” scheduled for publication in Base Ball 13: New Research on the Early Game, Fall 2021 (McFarland & Co.)
2020
- Emma Baccellieri, “A Brief History of the Many Times Baseball Has Died,” Sports Illustrated, August 29, 2019.
- Bill Staples Jr., “Early Baseball Encounters in the West: The Yeddo Royal Japanese Troupe Play Ball in America, 1872,” International Pastime, July 18, 2019.
- Dan VanDeMortel, “White Circles Drawn in Crayon,” in The Polo Grounds: Essays and Memories of New York City’s Historic Ballpark, 1880-1963; ed. Stew Thornley (McFarland & Co.)
2019
- Richard Bak, “The Rise and Fatal Fall of Tenny Blount,” unpublished work.
- Robert Fitts, “Baseball and the Yellow Peril,” Base Ball: New Research on the Early Game, Vol. 10 (McFarland & Co.)
- John McMurray, “Addie Joss and the Benefit Game,” Base Ball: New Research on the Early Game, Vol. 10 (McFarland & Co.)
2018
- Warren Corbett, “The ‘Strike’ Against Jackie Robinson: Truth or Myth?”, Baseball Research Journal, Spring 2017 (SABR)
- Doron Goldman, “1933-1962: The Business Meetings of Negro League Baseball,” in Baseball’s Business: The Winter Meetings, 1958-2016 (SABR)
2017
- Jack Bales, “The Show Girl and the Shortstop: The Strange Saga of Violet Popovich and Her Shooting of Cub Billy Jurges,” Baseball Research Journal, Fall 2016 (SABR)
- Dan Barry, “The Big League Prospect Who Became a Mob Hit Man,” New York Times, October 30, 2016
2016
- Richard Bak, “Digging Up Bob Troy,” unpublished (subsequently published in Michigan Historical Review #44, No. 1, Spring 2018)
- Doron Goldman, “The Double Victory Campaign and the Campaign to Integrate Baseball,” from Who’s on First: Replacement Players in World War II, eds. Marc Z. Aaron and Bill Nowlin, 2015 (SABR)
- William Lamb, “Jury Nullification and the Not Guilty Verdicts in the Black Sox Case,” Baseball Research Journal, Fall 2015 (SABR)
2015
- David Ball with David Nemec, “The Sam Barkley Case,” Base Ball: A Journal of the Early Game, Vol. 7 (McFarland & Co.)
- James Overmyer, “Black Baseball at Yankee Stadium,” Black Ball: A Negro Leagues Journal, Vol. 7 (McFarland & Co.)
2014
- Rory Costello, “Olympic Stadium,” SABR Baseball Biography Project
- Christopher W. Schmidt, “Explaining the Baseball Revolution,” Arizona State Law Journal, Vol. 45, 2013
- Tom Shieber, “The Pride of the Seeknay,” Baseball Researcher
2013
- Bruce Allardice, “The Inauguration of This Noble and Manly Game Among Us: The Spread of Baseball in the South Prior to 1870,” Base Ball: A Journal of the Early Game, Fall 2012 (McFarland & Co.)
- Ken Fenster, “Earl Mann Beats the Klan: Jackie Robinson and the First Integrated Games in Atlanta,” NINE: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture, Spring 2013
- Mitchell Nathanson, “Who Exempted Baseball Anyway? The Curious Development of the Antitrust Exemption That Never Was,” Harvard Journal of Sports and Entertainment Law, Spring 2013
2012
- Thomas L. Altherr, “Basepaths and Baselines: The Agricultural and Surveying Contexts of the Emergence of Baseball”, Base Ball: A Journal of the Early Game, Fall 2011
- William Lamb, “John B. Day”, SABR Baseball Biography Project
- Geri Strecker, “Dave Wyatt: The First Great Black Sportswriter”, Black Ball: A Negro Leagues Journal, Spring 2011
2011
- Ron Cobb, “The Georgia Peach: Stumped by the Storyteller”, The National Pastime: Baseball in the Peach State, 2010 (SABR)
- Jeff Obermeyer, “Disposable Heroes: Returning World War II Veteran Al Niemiec Takes on Organized Baseball”, Baseball Research Journal, Summer 2010 (SABR)
- Geri Strecker, “And the Public Has Been Left to Guess the Secret: Questioning the Authorship of ‘The Great Match, and Other Matches’ (1877)”, NINE: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture, Spring 2010
2010
- Mark Armour, “A Tale of Two Umpires,” Baseball Research Journal, Fall 2009 (SABR)
- William F. Lamb, “A Fearsome Collaboration: The Alliance of Andrew Freedman and John T. Brush,” Base Ball: A Journal of the Early Game, Fall 2009
- Geri Strecker, “The Rise and Fall of Greenlee Field: Biography of a Ballpark,” Black Ball: A Journal of the Negro League, Fall 2009
2009
- David J. Laliberte, “Myth, History and Indian Baseball: An Unexpected Story of the Game in Minnesota”
- William J. McGill, “The Greatest College Pitcher: George Sisler at Michigan”
- David Vaught, “Our Players Are Mostly Farmers: Baseball in Rural California, 1850-1890”
2008
- Henry D. Fetter, “Revising the Revisionists: Walter O’Malley, Robert Moses, and the Death of the Brooklyn Dodgers”. (Revised text published under title “Revising the Revisionists: Walter O’Malley, Robert Moses and the End of the Brooklyn Dodgers,” in New York History, Vol. 89, No. 1, Winter 2008)
- Frederick Ivor-Campbell, “Knickerbocker Base Ball: The Birth and Infancy of the Modern Game” Base Ball: A Journal of the Negro League, Fall 2007 (McFarland & Co.)
- Dick Thompson, “Cannonball Bill Jackman,” The National Pastime #27, 2007 (SABR)
2007
- Brian Carroll, “Early Twentieth Century Heroes: Coverage of Negro League Baseball in the Pittsburgh Courier and the Chicago Defender,” Journalism History, Spring 2006
- Mitchell Nathanson, “The Irrelevance of Baseball’s Antitrust Exemption: A Historical Review,” Rutgers Law Review, Vol. 58, Issue 1, 2005
- Steve Steinberg, “Matty and the Browns: A Window Onto the AL-NL War,” NINE: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture, Spring 2006
2006
- Charlie Bevis, “Rocky Point: A Lone Outpost of Sunday Baseball in Sabbatarian New England,” NINE: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture, Fall 2005
- Gregory Bond, “Too Much Dirty Work: Race, Manliness And Baseball in Gilded Age Nebraska,” Nebraska History
- James Forr, “Pie Traynor,” SABR Baseball Biography Project
2005
- Richard Bak, “Bat Out of Hell,” included in the author’s book Peach: Ty Cobb in His Time and Ours, Sports Media Group, 2005
- Ken Fenster, “Earl Mann, Nat Peeples and the Failed Attempt of Integration in the Southern Association,” NINE: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture, Spring 2004
2004
- Charlie Bevis, “Evolution of the Sunday Doubleheader and Its Role in Elevating the Popularity of Baseball.” The Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture, 2003-04 (McFarland & Co.)
- Bob Gorman and David Weeks, “Foul Play, Fan Fatalities in Twentieth-Century Organized Baseball,” NINE: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture, Fall 2003
- Robert H. Schaefer, “The Great Baseball Match of 1858, Base Ball’s First All-Star Game,” published in NINE: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture, Fall 2005
2003
- Frank Ardolino, “Missionaries, Cartwright and Spalding,” NINE: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture, Fall 2002
- Ron Briley, “In the Tradition of Jackie Robinson: Ozzie Virgil and the Integration of the Detroit Tigers,” The Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture, 2002 (McFarland & Co.)
- Jim McConnell, “Dahlgren, You’re in There”
2002
- Bruce Markusen, “Thirty Years Ago … The First All-Black Lineup”, MLBlogs.com
- Robert H. Schaefer, “Legend of the Lively Ball,” Base Ball: A Journal of the Early Game (McFarland & Co.)
- Dick Thompson, “Baseball’s Greatest Hero: Joe Pinder,” Baseball Research Journal #30, 2001 (SABR)
2001
- Tom Altherr, “A Place Leavel Enough To Play Ball: Baseball and Baseball-type Games in the Colonial Era, Revolutionary War, and Early American Republic”, NINE: A Journal of Baseball History and Social Policy Perspectives
- Robert H. Schaefer, “The Lost Art of Fair-Foul Hitting,” The National Pastime #20, 2000 (SABR)
- Dick Thompson, “The Wes Ferrell Story,” The National Pastime #21, 2001 (SABR)
2000
- Ron Briley, “As American as Cherry Pie: Baseball and Reflections of Violence in the 1960s and 1970s,” The Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture, 1999
- Chris Lamb, “L’Affaire Jake Powell: The Minority Press Goes to Bat Against Segregated Baseball,” Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, Vol. 76, No. 1, Spring 1999
- Stephen Norwood and Harold Brackman, “Going to Bat for Jackie Robinson: The Jewish Role in Breaking Baseball’s Color Line,” Journal of Sport History, Vol. 26, No. 1, Spring 1999
1999
- David M. Jordan, Larry Gerlach and John Rossi, “A Baseball Myth Exploded,” The National Pastime #18, SABR, 1998
- Jim McConnell, “Baseball’s Dark Past,” Grandstand Baseball Annual
- Andrew O’Toole, “Clemente’s First Spring,” Elysian Fields Quarterly
1998
- Clifford Blau, “The History of Major League Tie Games”
- John McReynolds, “Nate Moreland, Mystery to Historians,” Los Angeles Sentinel, August 13, 1998
- Gary Smith, “Damned Yankee,” Sports Illustrated, October 13, 1997
1997
- Adrian Burgos Jr., “Jugando en el Norte: Caribbean Players in the Negro Leagues, 1910-1950,” Centro: Journal del Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños
- Jim Price, “A Half Century of Pain: A retrospective look at the 1946 Spokane Indian bus accident,” The Spokesman-Review, June 24, 1996
- Joseph M. Wayman, “Pitching Won-Loss Records, National League, 1890-1899,” Grandstand Baseball Annual
1996
- James A. Smith Jr. and Herman Krabbenhoft, “Triple Play Project,” The Baseball Quarterly Review
- Hank Thomas & Chuck Carey, for research involved in “The California Comet” on Walter Johnson’s California semi-pro career
- Michael O’Grady, “From Covehead to the Polo Grounds: The Story of Henry Haverlock Oxley, Major Leaguer”
1995
- Peter C. Bjarkman, Baseball with a Latin Beat: A History of the Latin American Game
- Robert F. Burk, Never Just a Game: Players, Owners and American Baseball to 1920
- Jack Kavanagh, Walter Johnson: A Life
1994
- Lloyd Johnson and Miles Wolff, The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball
- James A. Riley, The Biographical Encyclopedia of the Negro Baseball Leagues
- Michael Gershman, Diamonds: The Evolution of the Ballpark
1993
- Phil Dixon, The Negro Baseball Leagues: A Photographic History
- Barbara Gregorich, Women at Play: The Story of Women in Baseball
- William Ryczek, Blackguards and Red Stockings: A History of The National Association
1992
- Robert Gregory, Diz: The Story of Dizzy Dean and Baseball During the Great Depression
- Herman Krabbenhoft, “Baseball Quarterly Reviews”
- Mark Stang and Linda Harkness, “Rosters!”
1991
- Bruce Kuklick, “To Everything a Season — Shibe Park and Urban Philadelphia 1909-1976”
1990
- Dr. Harold Seymour, Baseball: The People’s Game
- Dick Clark, John Holway and James A. Riley, for work on Negro League statistics in The Baseball Encyclopedia (8th edition)
- James E. Miller, “The Baseball Business”
1989
- Bill Deane, Award Voting
- Paul Dickson, The Dickson Baseball Dictionary
- Marc Okkonen, Major League Uniforms of the 20th Century
1988
- Melvin Adelman, for his work on 1820-1870 New York City baseball
- Stew Thornley, “On to Nicollet,” a team profile of the Minneapolis Millers
- Bob Tiemann and Rich Topp, for their work cataloging managerial changes
1987
- Andy McCue, Baseball By the Books
- Rob Ruck, The Tropic of Baseball: Baseball in the Dominican Republic
Notes
References
- ^ “For International Customers”. McFarlandBooks.com. December 14, 2017.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link) - ^ Roark, Fawn (September 30, 2004). “McFarland President to Speak at Entrepreneurial Conference”. Mountain Times.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link) - ^ a b “Company History”. McFarlandBooks.com. McFarland & Company.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link) - ^ a b “McFarland & Company Announces Promotion”. Mountain Times. March 31, 2005. Archived from the original on December 15, 2013.
- ^ Slide, Anthony (2010). “A Publishing Phenomenon that Begins and Ends with Scarecrow Press”. Film History. 22 (3): 300–301. doi:10.2979/fil.2010.22.3.298. JSTOR 10.2979/fil.2010.22.3.298. S2CID 192112592.
The initial print run for a book in the Filmmakers series, and, for that matter, most if not all Scarecrow titles, was six hundred copies. A similar print run has been the norm at McFarland and Greenwood Press.
- ^ Slide, Anthony (2010). “A Publishing Phenomenon that Begins and Ends with Scarecrow Press”. Film History. 22 (3): 304. doi:10.2979/fil.2010.22.3.298. JSTOR 10.2979/fil.2010.22.3.298. S2CID 192112592.
McFarland […] books were primarily aimed at the library market. It was a mail order publisher with no interest in bookstore sales, but unlike its major competitor, virtually from the start all of its books were typeset.
- ^ Martinez, Amy (April 1, 2012). “Amazon.com Trying to Wring Deep Discounts from Publishers”. Seattle Times.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link) - ^ Slide, Anthony (2010). “A Publishing Phenomenon That Begins and Ends with Scarecrow Press”. Film History. 22 (3): 305. doi:10.2979/fil.2010.22.3.298. JSTOR 10.2979/fil.2010.22.3.298. S2CID 192112592.
Most film scholars, students and buffs would assume that McFarland’s main thrust has been towards film book Publishing [but] it is the largest publisher of military memoirs and baseball-oriented titles. It is also rich in books on women’s, African-American, and gender studies, on U.S. history, and is proud of its automotive line. It also boasts of being the most prestigious publisher of historical and reference books on chess.
- ^ “VP Celebrates 25 Years at McFarland”. Mountain Times. December 13, 2007. Archived from the original on December 15, 2013.
- ^ a b Brewer, Robert Lee (August 5, 2014). 2015 Writer’s Market: The Most Trusted Guide to Getting Published. Cincinnati: Writer’s Digest Books. ISBN 978-1-59963-860-7.
- ^ Guynes-Vishniac, Sean (2018). “The Zombie and Its Metaphors”. American Quarterly. 70 (4): 903–912. doi:10.1353/aq.2018.0072.
- ^ Schlobin, Roger C. (2011). “Review of A Short History of Fantasy by Farah Mendlesohn and Edward James”. Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts. 22 (2): 292–298. JSTOR 24353191. Retrieved February 23, 2023.
- ^ a b c d e “Journals”. McFarlandBooks.com. McFarland & Company.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link) - ^ “JTMS Journal of Territorial and Maritime Studies”. JTMS Journal of Territorial and Maritime Studies.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link) - ^ “McFarland-SABR Baseball Research Award – Society for American Baseball Research”. Retrieved January 19, 2026.
External links
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