Pelican's History
Pelican Publishing Company enjoys national recognition as a rapidly growing
medium-sized company with a backlist of over 1,500 titles and 50-60 new titles
produced in 2007. As a general trade publisher, Pelican produces travel guides,
art and architecture books, Christmas books, local and international cookbooks,
motivational and inspirational works, and children’s books, as well as a growing
number of social commentary, history, and fiction titles.
Pelican is a family-owned business. Milburn Calhoun, bibliophile and
physician, is president, publisher, and co-owner of the company with his wife,
Nancy, who serves as treasurer and vice president of special promotions. She
often lectures at national publishing conferences and was frequently a faculty
member of the Denver Publishing Institute. She is a former president of the
Publishers Association of the South. In 1998 the Calhoun’s were awarded the
Robin Mays Award, the Association’s highest award for southern publishing. James
Calhoun, Milburn’s brother, who served as executive editor until his retirement
in 1990, is currently special projects editor. Kathleen Calhoun Nettleton,
Milburn and Nancy’s daughter, is director of the promotion department. In 1995
Carl Nettleton joined the family and the firm when he married Kathleen. He is
currently the Information Systems Director using his background in computers.
Dr. and Mrs. Calhoun began collecting books many years ago. This interest
developed Bayou Books, a mail-order rare and out-of-print book business. When
they moved to New Orleans, Bayou Books was opened as a retail bookstore. Because
the shop was known nationally as a specialist in books on Louisiana, customers
across the country used its services.
In 1970, the Calhouns acquired Pelican Publishing House from Betty and
Hodding Carter and restored its name to Pelican Publishing Company. Its history
embraces such names as William Faulkner, whose first trade publication was
published by Pelican, Stuart O. Landry, whose vision kept the company alive from
1926 to 1966, and the Calhoun family, who expanded a small, ailing regional
publishing house into an internationally successful company. During their first
year as Pelican’s owners, the executive board members established a ten-year
plan of development. The Calhouns saw their sales double every year during this
period, reaching into all fifty states. Since 1980, annual sales increases have
averaged about 15-17 percent per year. The company is presently the largest
independent trade book publisher in the South.
Pelican began its physical expansion in 1980, moving to a former church
building on the West Bank of the Mississippi River across from New Orleans. In
1996, Pelican added a satellite office in Florida. However, New Year’s Eve 1997
brought the most dramatic and unexpected change; fire totally destroyed the
building that housed Pelican’s offices and approximately half of its stock of
books. Yet the owners and staff were determined to forge ahead and secured new
offices and equipment. The first few months of 1998 brought even better news as
Pelican recorded its most productive February ever and announced the acquisition
of permanent office and warehouse space in Gretna in a former bottling plant.
The warehouse moved into the facility in 1999. The remaining staff moved into
their new offices in the fall of 2000. Hurricane Katrina provided another
challenge to both the physical plant and the staff with the damage to the
facility and all staff being affected in various ways. Pelican did lose some
staff who decided not to return to the New Orleans area but has welcomed new
staff to fill those positions.
Pelican International is a wholly owned subsidiary founded in 1985 with
headquarters in Saipan. It is represented in the United Kingdom and Europe,
Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia. A regular attendee at the Frankfurt
Book Fair, Pelican has enlarged its growing market of foreign rights sales and
purchases. Pelican’s motivational titles by Zig Ziglar (See You at the Top)
and Dr. Walter Doyle Staples (Think Like a Winner!) lead
the entry into markets in Europe, South America, Asia, and Africa. Additionally,
Pelican continues its acquisition of foreign titles for U.S. publication.
 See You at the Top
is a special title among Pelican’s list due to its having the highest
sales of any Pelican title, currently 1,664,000. To celebrate the 25th
anniversary, a revised edition was published in 2000.
In addition to Zig Ziglar, Pelican counts many other well-known professionals
among its authors. Justin Wilson, who helped to generate the Cajun cooking
craze, was the author of eight books for Pelican, including Justin Wilson
Looking Back: A Cajun Cookbook, the subject of a national cooking show,
 which drew on his more than three decades of experience. The prolific James Rice
was the creator of over sixty books, including the classic Cajun Night
Before Christmas. He was considered one of the nation’s top children’s
writers and illustrators, with nearly two million copies of his books in print.
This series and the Gaston® character have expanded to plush toys,
Christmas ornaments, notecards, and postcards. Mary Alice Fontenot, author of
the acclaimed Clovis Crawfish Series, has spread Cajun culture and
swamp environmental study to children throughout the world. In 1998 she received
the Acadiana Arts Council’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
Pelican is also known for its diverse and thorough travel books. The
Maverick Guide Series, for the traveler who values choice, covers
destinations as diverse as Scotland and Australia. One of the crowning
achievements for the series was the first-place travel journalism award given to
The Maverick Guide to Hawaii by the Hawaii Visitors Bureau.
A Travel Guide to Jewish Europe and Traveling the Eurail Express
are additional guides that continuously delight travelers worldwide.
The Irish Bed & Breakfast Book and other similar books are featured in
paper editions and on their own Web site at
www.bedandbreakfastguide.com
with more entries being added.
Pelican is also known for its high-quality art books and a series of books on
children’s-book illustrators. These include the new Mardi Gras Treasures
series from Henri Schindler, New Orleans Architecture
Series, and three books by Patricia Hall, the world’s foremost expert
on Johnny Gruelle and his creations. The Real-For-Sure Story
of Raggedy Ann is the most recent title by Patricia Hall with Joni
Gruelle Wannamaker, Gruelle’s granddaughter, providing the illustrations. Artist
and illustrator Ezra Jack Keats is the subject of Ezra Jack Keats: Artist
and Picture-Book Maker by Brian Alderson, children’s-books reviewer for
The Times of London.
 Pelican’s passion for politics has long been evident, as illustrated by
Death at Chappaquiddick, by Richard and Thomas Tedrow, and Men
and Marriage, by George Gilder. The theme continued with the Best
Editorial Cartoons of the Year series. A recent title in this area is
The Chicken Little Agenda: Debunking “Experts’” Lies, by Robert G.
Williscroft.
The Civil War and its aftermath have always been ripe topics for Pelican
authors. One of Pelican’s perennial bestsellers is The South Was Right!,
by twin brothers James Ronald Kennedy and Walter Donald Kennedy. In it, they
argue that states had a Constitutional right to secede and that the North
unlawfully invaded the Confederacy. Other Civil War titles include Walter Brian
Cisco’s War Crimes Against Southern Civilians, Eddy Davison and
Daniel Foxx’s Nathan Bedford Forrest: In Search of the Enigma, and
Elizabeth Roberson’s Weep Not for Me, Dear Mother, which was
selected by the Children’s Book Council as a Notable Children’s Trade Book in
the Field of Social Studies.
Pelican also prides itself on its involvement in professional publishing
organizations. Promotion director Kathleen Calhoun Nettleton has served as a
board member for PAS. She currently is on the Small Press Steering Committee for
AAP. Pelican’s sales manager, Joseph Billingsley, is a past president for PAS
and serves on the NOGSBA board. Frank McGuire has also served on the PAS board.
For more
information contact Katie Szadziewicz, Promotion Director, at (504)
368-1175, 331.
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