Aschehoug

"Disambiguation: For the Danish publishing company by the same name, see Aschehoug (Egmont)"

H. Aschehoug & Co (W Nygaard), commonly known as Aschehoug, is a Norwegian independent publishing company, one of the largest in Norway. The corporation operates within two business areas, "literature" and "non-fiction," and has an interest in several other publishing companies, among them:
* Universitetsforlaget (100 %) - the main academic press in Norway
* Forlaget Oktober AS (91 %) - formerly the Marxist-Leninist press, now a publisher of fiction
* Norli Gruppen AS (50 %) - bookstore chain
* Lydbokforlaget AS (33 %) - audio books
* De norske Bokklubbene AS (48.5 %) - book clubs
* Forlagsentralen ANS (50 %) - distributes more than 75% of all books in Norway
* Kunnskapsforlaget ANS (50 %) - publishes encyclopedias

Aschehoug was founded as a bookstore in 1872 on Egertorvet in Oslo by the cousins Hieronymus and Halvard Aschehoug. In 1888, the company was taken over by William Martin Nygaard and Thorstein Lambrechts, who kept the name while expanding its operations and eventually split the bookstore and publishing business into two.

Aschehoug published an increasing number of important books through the years, including Fridtjof Nansen's book "Paa Ski over Grønland" (The First Crossing of Greenland) (ISBN 1-84158-216-6), the debut novels for Sigrid Undset, Johan Falkberget, as well seminal encyclopedic works. Aschehoug also published Salman Rushdie's book "Satanic Verses", and the company's CEO William Nygaard was shot and seriously wounded in 1993, presumably as a result of the fatwa issued against Rushdie and his publishers.

In 2004, * [http://www.aschehougagency.no Aschehoug Agency] was founded to represent the foreign rights of Oktober, Aschehoug and Universitetsforlaget publishing houses.