Horwitz Publishing House
Horwitz Publications, is an Australian publisher primarily known for its publication of popular and pulp fiction. Established in 1921 in Sydney, Australia by Israel and Ruth Horwitz, the company was a family-owned and -run business until the early 21st century. The company is most associated with their son Stanley Horwitz, who took over publishing operations in 1956. Stanley was eventually succeeded by his son Peter and daughter Susan, who is currently the company's director.
History
Horwitz started out publishing trade journals and sporting magazines, and moved into popular, pulp fiction, and comic books in the mid-20th century. It was exceedingly successful in genre fiction: crime, war, thrillers, and romance. Between the 1950s to the 1990s, Horwitz published some of the most popular pulp fiction writers, including Carter Brown[1] and Marshall Grover, in numerous successful author and title series. Some of the pseudonymous author names were used by multiple writers under contract to Horwitz, which owned the names.
From c. 1950 – c. 1966, Horwitz published a large number of war, Western, and crime comics, predominantly reprints of American comics. In the late 1950s, Horwitz published some original Australian comics, notably adaptations of its Carter Brown novels,[1] but also The Phantom Commando, created by John Dixon but mostly worked on by Maurice Bramley, who drew it until 1956.
Horwitz also published horror anthologies, some edited by Charles Higham, one by Groff Conklin and several under the 'James Dark' and 'James Workman' house names.
Horwitz later published educational books and expanded its magazine publishing activities after it wound back its fiction activities in the late 20th century.[2]
Multi-Author Series
- Sporting Western (1945–1950)
- Scientific Thriller (1948–1952)
- Period Novels (1950)
- Powder Smoke Westerns (1953)
- Western Saga Series (1954)
- Lion Books (1954–1955)
- Gold Star Books (1955–1956)
- Half Million Club (1955–1956)
- King Books (1955–1956)
- Triangle Books (1956)
- GI Books (1956–1957)
- Book of the Month (1958)
- Pocket Books (1959–1974), 1st series
- Name Author Series (1959–1966)
- Sovereign Series (1960)
- Commando/War (1960–1969)
- Four Square Series (1960–1964), British Four Square Books reprints
- Penguin (1961–1962), UK reprints
- Trident Westerns (1964–1966)
- Stag Modern Novels (1964–1965), mostly books originally published by Monarch Books, USA
- Horwitz Australian Library (1965–1970)
- Mystery Books (1966)
- Caperbacks Series (1966–1968)
- Gothic Library (1966–1967)
- New American Library Series (1967–1968), USA reprints
- Personality Series (1967–1968)
- Libido Series (1969)
- Adults Only (1969–1974), published under the Scripts imprint
- Adventure Classic (1970)
- Satyr Series (1970)
- Sea Adventure Library (1970)
- Pocket Books (1974–1981), 2nd series
- Stag Books (1976–1981)
This information appears in Graeme Flanagan's bibliography.[3]
Single-Author Series
- Carter Brown (1951–1984)
- Marc Brody (1955–1960)
- Dean Ballard Western (1956)
- K. T. McCall (1957–1965)
- John Laffin (1957–1958)
- James Gant (1957–1958)
- J. E. Macdonnell (1957–1989)
- Tod Conrad (1957–1965)
- Roger Hunt (1958–1963)
- Michael Own (1958–1967)
- Kid Colt Outlaw (1959)
- Wyatt Earp (1959)
- Johnny O'Hara (1959–1962)
- Gerry North (1959)
- Shane Douglas (1959–1975)
- John Wynnum (1959–1967)
- W. H. Williams (1959–1960)
- Ivan Southall (1959–1960)
- Willie Fennell (1959–1962)
- Alastair Mars (1959–1960)
- Alex Crane (1959), Alex Crane Suspense Stories
- W. R. Bennett (1960–1969)
- Kerry Mitchell (1960–1964)
- Richard Wilkes-Hunter (1960–1967)
- Ray Slattery (1961–1969)
- James Holledge (1961–1970)
- Karen Miller (1961–1963)
- James Dark (1962–1966)
- James Workman (1962–1968)
- John Slater (1962–1973)
- Rebecca Dee (1962–1963)
- Noni Arden (1963–1967)
- John Duffy (1963–1965)
- R. Charlott (1965), Army War series
- Jim Kent (1966–1976)
- Carl Ruhen (1966–1973)
- Marshall Grover (1967–1993)
- Teri Lester (1967–1968)
- Terry West (1969–1970)
- Ricki Francis (1970–1977)
- Stuart Hall (1970–1980)
- Adrian Gray (1971–1975)
- R.G. Hall (1971–1973)
- Alison Hart (1976–1977)
This list appears in Graeme Flanagan's bibliography.[4]
Notes
References
- Hetherington, John. "This is the House that Paperbacks Built." Age 13 April (1963), p. 22.
- Johnson-Woods, Toni. "The Mysterious Case of Carter Brown: Or, Who Really Killed the Australian Author?" Australian Literary Studies, 21.4 (2004): 74-88.
- --- Pulp: A Collector's Book of Australian Pulp Fiction Covers. Canberra, ACT: National Library of Australia (2004).
- May, Anthony. "Case Study: Horwitz." In Paper Empires: A History of the Book in Australia 1946-2005. Chapter 2. "Sixties Larrikins," pp. 50–52.
External links