Ariel Books was founded in 1976 by Armand Eisen as a small press. In the late 1970s it evolved into one of the country’s leading book producers, creating more than 1,000 individual publications published through major book publishers, such as Alfred A. Knopf, Viking Press, Houghton Mifflin Company, Bantam Books, Penguin Group, Barron's, Simon & Schuster, Workman Publishing, Running Press, Andrews McMeel Publishing, Ballantine Books, Dover Publications, Zondervan, Henry Holt, among many others. Some of the bestselling authors with whom Ariel Books has worked include Mark Helprin, Chris Van Allsburg, M. Scott Peck, M.D., Ray Bradbury, Carl Sagan, John Lennon, Ann Beattie, William F. Buckley, Jr., Ken Kesey, Professor Henry Steele Commager and Steven Spielberg. Its publications have included fiction, nonfiction, children and young adult books, illustrated books, as well as many other categories of publications.
In 2005, Ariel Books LLC became a Limited Liability Company in the State of New York.