Specializing in hardcover publications, Arbor House published works by Hortense Calisher, Ken Follett, Cynthia Freeman, Elmore Leonard and Irwin Shaw before being acquired by the Hearst Corporation in 1979 to move into paperback publishing.
[2] Publisher Donald Fine founded Arbor House in Westminster, Maryland in 1969, using a $5,000 loan.
[3] Fine was vice president of Dell Publishing and a co-founder of Delacorte Press, before starting his own business.
Arbor House published Elmore Leonard's Bandits and Sydney Biddle Barrows' The Mayflower Madam, which were bestsellers, but in January 1987, Arbor House reduced its publishing list from 70 books per annum to approximately 40 books.
[2] In June 1987, it was announced that Arbor House would become an imprint of William Morrow & Company from January 1988.