I am winding down my tribute to publishers of classic physics books in this post, though future posts will examine publishers in other subjects.
Springer-Verlag, of course, is a huge publisher in mathematics, engineering, and physics. I already discussed their Lecture Notes series in an earlier post. They are also the publishers of Walter Thirring's Course in Mathematical Physics and a series of texts lead-authored by Walter Greiner. Of particular note was their series Springer Tracts in Natural Philosophy, whose yellow covers resembled some of the Springer math texts. The series is listed as discontinued on the Springer website. Other highlights include Florian Scheck's Mechanics, Jack Vanderlinde's Classical Electromagnetic Theory (originally published by Kluwer), and Statistical Physics I: Equilibrium Statistical Mechanics by Toda, Saito, and Kubo. They also have legendary reference books like the long-out-of-print Handbuch der Physik, and the AIP Physics Desk Reference. Springer was founded in 1842 by Julius Springer.
Cambridge University Press is another titan, with classics going back to Brian Pippard's The Elements of Classical Thermodynamics (1957) and Chapman & Cowling's The Mathematical Theory of Non-Uniform Gases (first published in 1939). Examples of notable texts include Kleppner and Kolenkow's An Introduction to Mechanics, Hand & Finch's Analytical Mechanics, Jose & Saletan's Classical Dynamics: A Contemporary Approach, Zangwill's Modern Electrodynamics, Born & Wolf's Principles of Optics (originally published by Pergamon), and Ralph Baierlein's Thermal Physics. They also have the Student's Guide series, exemplified by Daniel Fleisch's A Student's Guide to Maxwell's Equations.
Oxford University Press is particularly strong in thermal & statistical physics texts, with examples such as Blundell & Blundell's Concepts in Thermal Physics, Bowley & Sanchez's Introductory Statistical Mechanics, and David Chandler's Introduction to Modern Statistical Mechanics. They have many others including Hilborn's Chaos and Nonlinear Dynamics and a particularly useful series, the Oxford Master Series in Condensed Matter Physics and a counterpart series for Statistical, Computational, and Theoretical Physics.
Cambridge and Oxford University Presses were founded in 1534 and 1586, respectively, laying claim to be the world's oldest and second-oldest university presses.
Finally I will mention a few publishers with relatively smaller footprints, at least in my collection of physics books.
Methuen's Monographs on Physical Subjects included some gems such as J. W. Leech's Mechanics and Derek F. Lawden's An Introduction to Tensor Calculus and Relativity. Algernon Methuen founded the company in 1892.
W. H. Freeman, founded in 1946, was an imprint of Macmillan. Its classic physics texts include Charles Kittel's Introduction to Solid State Physics (now published by Wiley), Kittel & Kroemer's Thermal Physics, Lorrain, Corson, & Lorrain's Electromagnetic Fields and Waves, and Taylor & Wheeler's Spacetime Physics.
W. B. Saunders, originally a medical publisher founded in 1888, was known as the publishers of Raymond Serway's introductory physics textbook, as well as classics such as Marion & Thornton's Classical Dynamics of Particles and Systems, and Ashcroft & Mermin's Solid State Physics. These are now published by Cengage. Due to a merger with Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, Saunders acquired Grant Fowles' Analytical Mechanics, now also published by Cengage.
For many years, Prentice-Hall was the publisher of David J. Griffiths' Introduction to Electrodynamics and Introduction to Quantum Mechanics, now both published by Cambridge University Press, and Douglas C. Giancoli's introductory physics text, now published by Pearson. Prentice-Hall was founded in 1913 by Charles Gerstenberg and Richard Ettinger, naming the firm after their mothers' maiden names.
Independent publisher W. W. Norton, founded in 1923 by William Warder Norton and his wife Mary Dows Herder Norton, publishes the MIT Introductory Physics Series (principle author, Anthony P. French) as well as Hans Ohanian's introductory physics textbook. Speaking of MIT, the MIT Press was the original publisher of the English version of Wolfgang Pauli's Lectures on Physics (now reprinted by Dover).
Academic Press (founded in 1941 by Walter J. Johnson and his brother-in-law Kurt Jacoby) is now part of Elsevier, but was the original publisher of the English version of Arnold Sommerfeld's Lectures on Theoretical Physics.
Princeton University Press (founded in 1905 by Whitney Darrow) publishes Kip Thorne and Roger Blandford's series, Modern Classical Physics, as well as cosmology books by P. J. E. Peebles, Roger Newton's philosophical essay Thinking About Physics, and Misner, Thorne, and Wheeler's Gravitation. They also have the Princeton Series in Physics and Einstein's Collected Papers. Princeton also has a "Nutshell" series, for instance, Anupam Garg's Classical Electromagnetism in a Nutshell, which at over 700 pages is quite a large nut.
University Science Books is a niche player, with notable books by John R. Taylor, Frank Shu, David McQuarrie, and John Townsend. Another niche publisher is Infinity Science Press, with titles like Ohanian's Classical Electrodynamics. The Chicago Lectures in Physics are published by the University of Chicago Press, and includes Robert Geroch's Mathematical Physics. Johns Hopkins University Presss has a few titles of note such as Don Lemons' Mere Thermodynamics.
World Scientific, a Singapore-based publisher started in 1981 by Phua Kok Khoo and Doreen Liu, has a few notable titles such as Kibble & Berkshire's Classical Mechanics (on behalf of Imperial College Press) and Fritz Rohrlich's Classical Charged Particles.
Finally, all physics readers should be grateful to Dover for keeping some of our favorite classics in print.
No comments:
Post a Comment