W. W. Norton к Company has been independent since its founding in 1923, when William Warder Norton and Mary D. Herter Norton first published lectures delivered at the People's Institute, the adult education division of New York City's Cooper Union. The firm soon expanded its program beyond the Institute, publishing books by celebrated academics from America and abroad. By miel-century. the two major pillars of Norton's publishing program—trade books and college texts—were firmly established. In the 1950s. the Norton family transferred control of the company to its employees, and today—with a staff of four hundred and a comparable number of trade, college, anti professional titles published each year—W. W. Norton к Company stands as the largest anti oldest publishing house owned wholly by its employees.