McFarland & Company
American book publishing company
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.
McFarland employs a staff of about 50, and as of 2019 had published 7,800 titles. McFarland's initial print runs average 600 copies per book.
Subject matter
McFarland & Company focuses mainly on selling to libraries. It also utilizes direct mailing to connect with enthusiasts in niche categories. The company is known for its sports literature, especially baseball history, as well as books about chess, military history, and film. In 2007, the Mountain Times wrote that McFarland publishes about 275 scholarly monographs and reference book titles a year; Robert Lee Brewer reported in 2015 that the number is about 350.
“McFarland & Company” enters the record as american book publishing company. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what McFarland, Company and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“McFarland & Company” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, McFarland, Company and American provides the most credible route into that argument.
Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3303647. VIAF identifies the subject as 154560576. The Library of Congress control number is no2013067505. 4 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1979, 2019, 2007 and 2015.
Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
- Identifying works and editions
- Tracing reception history
- Finding collection records
The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “McFarland & Company”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow McFarland & Company primary sources, McFarland & Company archive and McFarland research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “McFarland & Company”?
- Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
- How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “McFarland & Company” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.