Revell Celebrates 150 Years in Publishing

Ada, Mich. (July 22, 2020)—Baker Publishing Group, which purchased Fleming H. Revell in 1992, is pleased to announce Revell’s 150th anniversary.

In 1870, Fleming Hewitt Revell established the Fleming H. Revell Company in Chicago, Illinois. Since that time, Revell has undergone numerous changes but continues to maintain its focus on providing resources that help bring the Christian faith to everyday life.

Revell began his career by printing and publishing Sunday school papers by his famous brother-in-law, Dwight L. Moody. This publishing venture quickly expanded, and within thirty years the fledgling company became the largest American publisher of religious books, with offices in Chicago, New York, Toronto, London, and Edinburgh.

During the early years, Revell’s author list included such thought-provoking and cutting-edge leaders as R. A. Torrey, C. H. Spurgeon, Henry Drummond, and Hannah Whitall Smith, whose book The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life (1875) remains in print.

After the turn of the century, Revell began publishing more general-market titles that included works from Catherine Marshall, Charles L. Allen, Dale Evans Rogers, Florence Littauer, Dr. Willard Harley, Pat Williams, Holley Gerth, and Emily P. Freeman. Revell’s name has also become synonymous with New York Times bestsellers with works such as Dr. Kevin Leman’s Have a New Kid by Friday, Don Piper’s 90 Minutes in Heaven, Mary Beth Chapman’s Choosing to See, and Lisa Bevere’s Without Rival.

During the early 1990s, Revell began gaining traction with their fiction publishing. Now fiction makes up 50 percent of Revell’s new titles from bestselling and award-winning authors such as Ted Dekker, Jane Kirkpatrick, Suzanne Woods Fisher, Irene Hannon, Ann H. Gabhart, Susan May Warren, and Lynette Eason.

Revell’s desire to introduce fresh new voices to the fiction world is being met with considerable success as these emerging writers are being awarded for their fresh content and creativity. Shawn Smucker recently won his second Christianity Today Book Award for Light from Distant Stars, and Erin Bartels’s We Hope for Better Things and Susie Finkbeiner’s All Manner of Things were named Michigan Notable Book Award winners for 2020.

As Revell celebrates this milestone anniversary, it continues to strive for excellence and to provide resources that offer practical help, lead to personal growth, and speak to the heart of the reader. “Revell is part of the heart of Baker Publishing Group,” said president Dwight Baker. “We were honored to purchase it and are honored to help in its success. I pray that we can continue to help uphold the long legacy of Revell.”

Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group, publishes books that help bring the Christian faith to everyday life. Whether through fiction, Christian living, self-help, marriage, family, or youth books, each Revell publication reflects relevance, integrity, and excellence.

Baker Publishing Group publishes high-quality writings that represent historic Christianity and serve the diverse interests and concerns of evangelical readers.

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