Abingdon Press

Abingdon Press is the book publishing arm of the United Methodist Publishing House^[1] which publishes sheet music, ministerial resources, Bible-study aids, and other items, often with a focus on Methodism and Methodists.

Abingdon Press was begun in the early 1900s by the Methodist Church, with headquarters in New York City. The name of the imprint is a reference to the town of Abingdon, Maryland, location of the Methodist university Cokesbury College.^[2]

In 1923 the Methodist Episcopal Church, South adopted the name Cokesbury for its own publishing concern, with headquarters in Nashville, Tennessee.^[2] When the northern and southern branches of the Methodist Episcopal Church reunified in 1939, the name Abingdon-Cokesbury was chosen as the name of publishing house of the unitary Methodist Church and Nashville was chosen as the headquarters.^[2]

This name remained in use until 1954, when a return was made to the name Abingdon Press, with the church's retail division for its publishing enterprises assuming the name Cokesbury.^[2] In 1965 the joint Abingdon Press and the associated Cokesbury retail shops employed more than 2,000 people.^[3] In 1968, W. T. Handy, Jr. was hired as their first African-American executive.^[4]

• Abingdon Press home page
• United Methodist Publishing Househome home page
• Cokesbury home page