Simon & Schuster
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Simon & Schuster, Inc., is a publishing house founded in New York in 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln ("Max") Schuster, notable for its publication of crossword puzzle books.
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[edit] Origins
Crossword puzzles first appeared in the New York World in 1913. By 1924, they had been a weekly feature for many years. According to Frederick Lewis Allen's Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1920's. Simon's aunt, a crossword devotee, asked him whether there was a book of these puzzles that she could give to a friend. Simon discovered that none had been published, and, with Schuster, launched a company to exploit the opportunity.
Their first book was marketed cleverly. To attract attention, it came with a pencil attached to it. Their advertising campaign implied that it was about to become a new fad:
The ad proved prophetic, and crossword puzzles were indeed the craze of 1924.
Simon & Schuster soon became a publisher of books of all kinds, and currently publishes over two thousand titles annually under 35 different imprints.
In 1939, with Robert Fair de Graff, Simon & Schuster founded Pocket Books, America's first paperback publisher.
In 1942, Simon & Schuster, or "Essandess" as it is called in the initial announcement, launched the Little Golden Books series in cooperation with the Artists and Writers Guild. Simon & Schuster's partner in the venture was the Western Printing and Lithographing Company which handled the actual printing. Western Printing bought out Simon & Schuster's interest in 1958.
In 1944, Marshall Field III, owner of the Chicago Sun newspaper, purchased Simon & Schuster and Pocket Books. Following Field's death, in 1957 his heirs sold the company back to Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster, while Leon Shimkin and James M. Jacobson acquire Pocket Books.
Some of its near-legendary editors have been Robert Gottlieb and Michael Korda.
Recent bestsellers published by the company include the work of Stephen King, Mary Higgins Clark, Bob Woodward, David McCullough, Jimmy Carter, Bob Dylan, Michael Moore, and Hillary Clinton.
Simon & Schuster continues to be the preeminent U. S. publisher of crossword puzzle books.
[edit] Currently
Simon & Schuster is currently a division of the media giant CBS Corporation (formerly Viacom).
[edit] Imprints
- Simon & Schuster (the main imprint)
and
- Atria Books
- Free Press
- Howard Books
- Kaplan
- Pocket Books
- Scribner
- Simon Spotlight Entertainment
- Strebor
- The Touchstone and Fireside Group
For young adults and children:
- Aladdin Paperbacks
- Atheneum Books (including Richard Jackson Books and Ginee Seo books)
- Little Simon
- Little Simon Inspirations
- Margaret K. McElderry Books
- Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers (including Paula Wiseman Books and Ruckus)
- Simon & Schuster Libros Para Niños
- Simon Pulse
- Simon Scribbles
- Simon Spotlight
[edit] Trivia
- The familiar Simon & Schuster logotype is based on Jean-François Millet's seminal painting The Sower.
- From around 1991, until November 2003, Simon & Schuster also had a division, named Simon & Schuster Interactive, devoted to games for computers and video game consoles such as Xbox, GameCube, and Playstation. They published such games as Outlaw Golf, Real War, Real War: Rogue States, and the Deer Avenger series, Soldiers of Anarchy and Eve Online
- In 2001, Simon & Schuster published Now, Discover Your Strengths the first book to print a unique password on each jacket that enables the reader to go online and test him or herself in the concepts from the book. This book was a phenomenal best seller, spawning a trend that Simon and Schuster has continued with best selling titles like The Emotional Intelligence Quick Book.
[edit] See Related
- "Announcing Little Golden Books." Publishers' Weekly. September 19, 1942. Pages 991-994.
- "Simon & Schuster Inc." International Directory of Company Histories. 4:671-672.
- "Simon & Schuster Inc." International Directory of Company Histories. 19:403-405.
