Our business idea states that we shall develop our position as an independent force with broad activities in the Swedish publishing world by producing good books and engaging in other media activities with high ambitions.
During the last few decades we have been active in both respects. In particular we have committed our selves to many other book and media activities.
Biblioteksförlaget, a publishing house with an excellent publication list in Swedish textbooks, was acquired in 1980 and during the 1980s operated as an independent subsidiary. Askild & Kärnekull, a publisher with a popular list aimed at the general public, was taken over in 1981. In 1983 the name was changed to Legenda. At the beginning of the 1990s both companies merged with Natur och Kultur.
The literary one-man publishing company Fripress was incorporated into Natur och Kultur in 1990. Among its authors are Seamus Heaney, Jaan Kross and Vizma Bels?evica. The same year we acquired LT publishers from LRF and operated it first as a subsidiary, later as its own division. Since 2003 its name is Natur och Kultur/Fakta etc.
The non-fiction publisher Spektra's list was acquired in 1998 and became part of Natur och Kultur/LT. That same year we bought the Norwegian University Publishing Company's branch in Stockholm (SCUP) and amalgamated its list with Natur och Kultur's.
In 1991, as a division within the publishing company, we started the book club Natur och Kultur /DIREKT with books "for your own development and that of others".
Commitments outside the out-and-out publishing acitivities during recent years can be summarized as follows:
- In 1987 we joined the financing of Nordic Television, which in 1990 began to broadcast the commercial TV channel TV4.
- In 1988 we started Böckernas Klubb in cooperation with Bromberg's Publishing Company and the Children's Book Club among others. At present we, together with P A Norstedt´s Publishing Company are the largest owners.
- In 2000 we became co-founders of the e-book publishers eLib and shortly thereafter joint owners of e-education publisher Theducation.
- In 2003 we became joint owners of the Internet booksellers AdLibris.
For Natur och Kultur the past and the present are closely allied. Ever since its start in 1922 Natur och Kultur has been a publishing company borne and driven by ideas in important aspects. Our founder Johan Hansson, the son of a small farmer from southern Sweden, and his wife Jenny were both greatly impressed by the ideas of freedom and social reform in the beginning of the twentieth century. They were in close contact with currents of thought in both social democratic and social liberal ideology.
After working in Denmark and Germany, studies and extended journeys to Australia and the USA, Johan and Jenny joined the Swedish Cooperative Publishing Company in 1912. In the monograph series "Natur och Kultur" this company published popular books on political science and economic subjects as well as cultural history and other enlightening subjects. The series was aimed at the large groups of people without long, formal education who, after the introduction of universal suffrage, had found positions in various political organs.
Challenging History
Johan and Jenny brought the name Natur och Kultur with them when in 1922 they formed their new company and began a successful publishing adventure. They continued to develop a broad, informative publication list, but also entered other fields such as history, psychology, fiction and children's books.
During World War II, as a convinced anti-Nazi, Johan Hansson published books openly critical of Hitler's ascendancy. The Swedish coalition government, disposed towards concessions to Germany, considered these books bad for our connections with a foreign power and banned them. But the books reached the readers anyway. The experience from that period has been important to Natur och Kultur.
The Future in the Spirit of Freedom
When in 1947 Natur och Kultur celebrated its 25th anniversary Johan Hansson transformed his publishing company into a trade foundation, whose objective, according to the documents, was to operate the company so that it would promote business life, culture and liberal education and "counteract totalitarian ideas and forms of government and foster economic and political freedom". In the event of a surplus the funds shall be used for cultural and non-profit purposes beneficial to the community.
Those statutes are still in force. We see the future in the light of our basic ideas and our past. It is clear to us that we should work in the spirit of anti-totalitarianism and freedom when we look for ways to further strengthen our position as publishers of good books. "It is clear to us that we should work in the spirit of anti- totalitarianism and freedom when we look for ways to further strengthen our position as publishers of good books."
