Joseph Malaby Dent (30 August 1849 – 9 May 1926) was a British book publisher who founded J.M. Dent and Company in 1888; the name was changed to J.M. Dent & Sons in 1909.

In 1867, Edwin Ginn founded the publishing company Ginn Brothers in the City of Boston. After a series of brief partnerships and name changes, the firm was finally established under the name Ginn & Company in 1885. By the 1890s, the publisher, which had become particularly known for its school texts, outgrew its Boston location and sought to expand elsewhere. In 1895, the company built a new publishing factory, the Athenaeum Press, in Cambridge. By the late nineteenth century, the Press had an output of ten thousand books per day and was responsible for publishing over 800 titles (Gilman, 1896; Eliot, 1913). Merged with Silver Burdett (under Simon & Schuster) and later became an imprint of Pearson Education, leaving behind a rich history of beloved and classic school books.