By the age of 21, he was placed in charge of the miscellaneous catalog of books by publisher Rees Welsh.
At age 25, McKay published the first collected set of Shakespeare’s works in the United States.
In 1935, the company recognized the potential of the comic book medium and began selling collections of such popular strips as Henry and Popeye.
McKay's son Alexander would follow in his father's shoes by taking over the house to go on to publish Walt Disney’s first Mickey Mouse comics, the Blondie and Dagwood comic series, and numerous other notable works.
At the end of 1973, David McKay Publications was acquired by the British magazine publisher Morgan Grampian, in which Geffen had an interest.