Phanes Press

• Status — Active • Founded — 1956 • Founder — Samuel Weiser • Country — United States • Headquarters — * San Francisco, California (editorial) • Newburyport, Massachusetts (sales/marketing) • Distribution — * Self-distribution (US) • Georgetown Publications (Canada) • Brumby Sunstate (Australia) • Hay House (South Africa) • Deep Books (Europe) • Curreri World Services (Asia) • Publications — Books • Topics — New Age, occult • Imprints — * Career Press • Conari Books • Disinformation Books • New Page Books • Phanes Press • Red Wheel • Turning Stone Press • Weiser Books

Career Press was founded in 1985 by Ron Fry and is focused on business books. Red Wheel/Weiser acquired Career Press in 2017.

Phanes Press was an independent book publisher until acquired by Red Wheel Weiser Conari in 2004. Phanes Press was founded by David Fideler in 1985 and published books concerning "the spiritual, philosophical and cultural traditions of the Western world", and topics ranging from "alchemy to Sufism, from Gnosticism to Neoplatonism", to the traditions of the Pythagoreans. The company's publications were distributed by Words Distributing Co., which had 23 publisher clients in 2000. As a so-called "micro-publisher", the company had published only 52 titles by 2004, when it was purchased by the then-named Red Wheel/Weiser/Conari. Reprints of Phanes titles were slated to appear under the Weiser Books imprint after the acquisition. Among Phanes's best-selling titles were The Pythagorean Sourcebook and Awakening Osiris. Other titles published by Phanes included: • Blackfoot Physics by F. David Peat • The Manual of Harmonics by Nicomachus of Gerasa • The Pagan Dream of the Renaissance by Joscelyn Godwin • The Voice of the Earth by Theodore Roszak

Red Wheel was started in 2000 as a Weiser imprint for spiritually oriented and occult self-help and how-to books, and at that time the company name was changed from Samuel Weiser, Inc., to RedWheel/Weiser, with several other variations used, including Weiser, Inc.

Turning Stone was launched in 2012. It is a self-publishing imprint, in collaboration with Hampton Roads Publishing and Hierophant Publishing.

After New York, the company was located in Boston, Massachusetts, and then in York Beach, Maine for most of its history. In 2006, the editorial department moved to San Francisco, California, and the sales and marketing department moved to Newburyport, Massachusetts.

The following is established of the heading itself. Institutional cataloguing adds that phanes Press is recorded from 1985.

This imprint was acquired in 2002. Before this, Conari Books had been a separate publisher, based in Berkeley, California, dating back to 1989. This imprint focuses on books that address sociology and parenting issues through a spiritual or New Age perspective. Mango Publishing acquired Conari from Red Wheel/Weiser in 2019.

Disinformation Books was founded in 1997 as the publishing division of Disinformation. It was acquired by Red Wheel/Weiser in 2012.

New Page Books was founded in 1999 as the general nonfiction imprint of Career Press.

This main imprint is also the oldest. It was founded as Samuel Weiser, Inc., in 1956, a time when few other publishers were willing to tackle occult subjects, and was originally an offshoot of the New York City retailer Weiser Antiquarian Books. This imprint publishes the backlist and continues to acquire books on occultism, astrology, esoteric subjects, Eastern religions, Wicca, and related topics.

In 2023, they acquired Quest Books, previously owned by the Theosophical Publishing House, itself the publishing arm of the Theosophical Society in America.