It was founded as "Chic News Company" by Charles Byrne and Frederick Klein, who had worked for Avon; they quickly renamed it Berkley Publishing Co.

The company was bought in 1965 by G. P. Putnam's Sons[1] and in years to follow undertook a hardcover line under the Berkley imprint, chiefly but not only for science fiction.

Following its publication (1985) of the paperback reprint edition of Tom Clancy's The Hunt for Red October, Berkley Books became increasingly interested in publishing military combat fiction and technothrillers; its publicity campaigns at military bases contributed to the success of its reprint edition of Dale Brown's Flight of the Old Dog.

[2] In December 2008, Berkley cancelled the publication of the Herman Rosenblat Holocaust memoir titled Angel at the Fence when it was discovered that the book's central events were untrue.

[5] In September 2012, Berkley Books announced that a trilogy of erotic romance novels by Maya Banks had been acquired for publishing.