EAKIN PUBLICATIONS, INCORPORATED. Eakin Publications, a trade-book publisher, was founded in 1979 and incorporated in 1980 in Burnet, Texas, by Edwin M. Eakin, who headed the company. He was previously copublisher of community newspapers in Quanah, Clarendon, Chillicothe, and Saginaw, Texas, and co-owner of newspapers in Iowa Park and Azle, Texas, and of Nortex Offset Publications, Incorporated, in Wichita Falls. In 1979 the company had some fifty books in print and added what became the principal imprint, Eakin Press, used for books marketed through the trade. Nortex Press was reserved for books the company's printing department printed for individuals, companies, and organizations. In February 1983 the firm moved into a new plant in southwest Austin. By 1985 Eakin Press had more than 250 books in print, including more than fifty juvenile titles, and marketed its books nationwide to schools and libraries and through bookstores. Although the press began by specializing in titles relating to Texas history, ethnic groups, folklore, and food, in 1984 editorial policy began to shift to include contemporary fiction and nonfiction of general interest. By the late 1980s Eakin Press was issuing some forty new titles each year.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Eakin Press Records, Austin.

Edwin M. Eakin