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Pocket Books is a division of Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster

Simon & Schuster, Inc., a division of CBS Corporation, is a publisher founded in New York City in 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster....
 that primarily publishes paperback
Paperback

Paperback, softback, or softcover describe and refer to a book by the nature of its bookbinding. The book covers of such books are usually made of paper or cardboard, and are usually held together with adhesive rather than stitches or Staple s....
 books.

Pocket produced the first mass-market, pocket-sized paperback books in America in early 1939 and revolutionized the publishing industry.






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Pocket Books is a division of Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster

Simon & Schuster, Inc., a division of CBS Corporation, is a publisher founded in New York City in 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster....
 that primarily publishes paperback
Paperback

Paperback, softback, or softcover describe and refer to a book by the nature of its bookbinding. The book covers of such books are usually made of paper or cardboard, and are usually held together with adhesive rather than stitches or Staple s....
 books.

Pocket produced the first mass-market, pocket-sized paperback books in America in early 1939 and revolutionized the publishing industry. The German Albatross Books
Albatross Books

Albatross Books was a German publishing house based in Hamburg that produced the first modern mass market paperback books.Albatross was founded in 1932 by John Holroyd-Reece, Max Wegner and Kurt Enoch....
 had pioneered the idea of a line of color-coded paperback editions in 1931 under Kurt Enoch; Penguin Books
Penguin Books

Penguin Books is a United Kingdom publisher founded in 1935 by Allen Lane. Lane's idea was to provide quality writing cheaply, for the same price as a pack of cigarettes....
 in Britain had refined the idea in 1935 and had 1 million books in print by the following year.

In 1944, the founding owners sold the company to Marshall Field III
Marshall Field III

Marshall Field III , was a grandson of Marshall Field. He and another grandson, Henry Field, were the beneficiaries of the majority of Marshall Field?s estate upon his death in 1906....
, owner of the Chicago Sun
Chicago Sun-Times

The Chicago Sun-Times is an United States daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois....
 newspaper. Following his death, in 1957, Leon Shimkin, a Simon & Schuster partner, and James M. Jacobson bought Pocket Books.

Penguin's success inspired entrepreneur Robert de Graff, who partnered with publishers Simon & Schuster to bring it to the American market. Priced at 25 cents and featuring the logo of Gertrude the kangaroo
Kangaroo

A kangaroo is a marsupial from the family Macropodidae . In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the Red Kangaroo, the Antilopine Kangaroo, and the Eastern Grey Kangaroo and Western Grey Kangaroo of the Macropus genus....
 (named after the artist's mother-in-law), Pocket Books' editorial policy of reprints of light literature, popular non-fiction, and mysteries was coordinated with its strategy of selling books outside the traditional distribution channels. The format size, and the fact that the books were glued rather than stitched, were cost-cutting innovations.

The first 10 numbered Pocket Book titles:
  1. Lost Horizon by James Hilton
    James Hilton

    James Hilton was an Academy Award-winning England novelist, and author of several best-sellers including Lost Horizon and Goodbye Mr. Chips....
  2. Wake Up and Live
    Wake Up and Live

    Wake Up and Live is a 1937 in film 20th Century Fox musical film directed by Sidney Lanfield and produced by Darryl F. Zanuck. The movie stars Walter Winchell, Ben Bernie and Alice Faye and was based upon the self-help bestseller by Dorothea Brande....
     by Dorothea Brande
    Dorothea Brande

    Dorothea Brande was a well respected writer and editor in New York.She was born in Chicago and attended the University of Chicago, the Lewis Institute in Chicago , and the University of Michigan....
  3. Five Great Tragedies by William Shakespeare
    William Shakespeare

    William Shakespeare was an English people poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's preeminent dramatist....
  4. Topper
    Topper (novel series)

    Topper is a series of comedy fantasy novels written by Thorne Smith. The novels are about a respectable banker called Cosmo Topper and his misadventures with a couple of ghosts, Marion and George Kerby....
     by Thorne Smith
    Thorne Smith

    James Thorne Smith Jr. , was an United States writer of humorous supernaturnal fantasy fiction.Best known today for his creation of Topper , Smith's comic fantasy fiction sold millions of copies in the early 1930s....
  5. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
    The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

    The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by William Collins in June 1926 in literature and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company on the 19th of the same month....
     by Agatha Christie
    Agatha Christie

    Agatha Mary Clarissa, Lady Mallowan, Order of the British Empire , commonly known as Agatha Christie, was an English people crime writer of novels, short stories and Play ....
  6. Enough Rope by Dorothy Parker
    Dorothy Parker

    Dorothy Parker was an American writer and poet, best known for her caustic wit, wisecracks, and sharp eye for 20th century urban foibles.From a conflicted and unhappy childhood, Parker rose to acclaim, both for her literary output in such venues as The New Yorker and as a founding member of the Algonquin Round Table, a group she later...
  7. Wuthering Heights
    Wuthering Heights

    Wuthering Heights is Emily Bront?'s only novel. It was first published in 1847 under the pseudonym Ellis Bell, and a posthumous second edition was edited by her sister Charlotte Bront?....
     by Emily Brontė
    Emily Brontė

    Emily Jane Bront? ; was a United Kingdom novelist and poet, now best remembered for her only novel Wuthering Heights, a classic of English literature....
  8. The Way of All Flesh
    The Way of All Flesh

    The Way of All Flesh is a semi-autobiographical novel by Samuel Butler which attacks Victorian-era hypocrisy. Written between 1873 and 1884, it traces four generations of the Pontifex family....
     by Samuel Butler
    Samuel Butler (novelist)

    Samuel Butler was an iconoclastic Victorian era author who published a variety of works, including the Utopian satire Erewhon and the posthumous novel The Way of All Flesh , his two best-known works, but also extending to examinations of Christianity orthodoxy, substantive studies of history of evolutionary thought, studies of Italia...
  9. The Bridge of San Luis Rey
    The Bridge of San Luis Rey

    The Bridge of San Luis Rey is United States author Thornton Wilder's second novel first published in 1927 to worldwide acclaim. It tells the story of several interrelated people who die in the collapse of an Inca rope-fiber suspension bridge in Peru, and the events that lead up to their being on the bridge.....
     by Thornton Wilder
    Thornton Wilder

    Thornton Niven Wilder was an American playwright and novelist. His best known work is his play Our Town....
  10. Bambi
    Bambi, A Life in the Woods

    Bambi, a Life in the Woods is a book by Felix Salten, first printed in 1923. Bambi is the main character, a male roe deer beginning life as a fawn, then an adolescent spike, and finally a buck....
     by Felix Salter


The edition of Wuthering Heights hit the best-seller list, and by the end of the first year Pocket Books had sold more than 1.5 million units. Robert de Graff continued to refine his selections with movie tie-ins and greater emphasis on mystery novels, particularly those of Christie and Erle Stanley Gardner
Erle Stanley Gardner

Erle Stanley Gardner was an United States lawyer and author of crime fiction, who also published under the pseudonyms A.A. Fair, Kyle Corning, Charles M....
.

Pocket and its imitators thrived during World War II
World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
 because material shortages worked to their advantage. During the war, Pocket sued Avon Books for copyright infringement: among other issues, a New York state court found Pocket did not have an exclusive right to the pocket-sized format (both Pocket and Avon published paperback editions of Leslie Charteris
Leslie Charteris

Leslie Charteris , born Leslie Charles Bowyer-Yin, was a half-Han Chinese, half English people author of primarily mystery fiction, as well as a screenwriter....
' The Saint
Simon Templar

Simon Templar is a British fictional character known as The Saint, featured in a long-running series of books by Leslie Charteris published between 1928 and 1963....
 mystery series, among others).

Pocket is still known for publishing works of popular fiction based on movies or TV series, such as the Star Trek
Star Trek

Star Trek is an American Science fiction on television entertainment series and media franchise. The Star Trek fictional universe created by Gene Roddenberry is the setting of six television series including the original 1966 Star Trek: The Original Series, in addition to ten feature films with Star Trek to be released on May 8,...
 franchise and formerly Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Buffy novels

Buffy novels have been published since 1998. Originally, under the Pocket Books imprint of Simon & Schuster they are now published by Simon Spotlight Entertainment which launched in 2004....
. The author credited for one of the Buffy products is Gertrude Pocket, a reference to the company's kangaroo logo (The Buffy novels are now published by Simon Spotlight Entertainment, another division of Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster

Simon & Schuster, Inc., a division of CBS Corporation, is a publisher founded in New York City in 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster....
). Since first obtaining the Star Trek license from Bantam Books
Bantam Books

Bantam Books is a major U.S. publishing house owned by Random House and is an imprint of the Random House Publishing Group. It was formed in 1945 by Walter Pitkin, Jr., Sidney B....
 in 1980 (with a publication of the novelization of Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Star Trek: The Motion Picture

Star Trek: The Motion Picture is a 1979 in film science fiction film released by Paramount Pictures. It is the first motion picture based on the Star Trek: The Original Series television series....
), Pocket has published hundreds of original and adapted works based upon the franchise. Incidentally, Pocket Books is a division of the same company that owns Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American motion picture production company and distribution company, located on Melrose Avenue in Hollywood, California....
, which produced all of the Star Trek television shows and movies. Pocket Books is also the division that currently owns publication rights to the well-known work of James O'Barr, The Crow
The Crow

The Crow is a comic book ongoing series created by James O'Barr. The series was originally written by O'Barr as a means of dealing with the death of his girlfriend at the hands of a drunk driver....
.

Imprints

  • Baen Books
    Baen Books

    Baen Books is an American publishing company established in 1983 by long time Science Fiction publisher and editor Jim Baen. It is a science fiction and fantasy publishing house that emphasizes space opera, hard science fiction, military science fiction, and fantasy....
    —Science fiction and fantasy (distributed)
  • Cardinal Edition
  • Downtown Press—chick lit
  • G-Unit
    G-Unit

    G-Unit is an American Hip hop music group originating from New York City. G-Unit emerged on the New York scene by independently releasing several mixtapes....
     Books
  • Juno Books [formerly an imprint of Wildside Press
    Wildside Press

    Wildside Press is an independent publishing company located in Maryland, USA. It was founded in 1989 by John Gregory Betancourt and Kim Betancourt....
  • MTV
    MTV

    MTV is an United States cable television network based in Media of New York City. Launched on August 1, 1981, the original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJ ....
     / VH1
    VH1

    VH1 is an United States cable television network based in New York City. Launched on January 1, 1985 in television, the original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos, but targeting a slighter older demographic than its sister channel, focusing on the lighter, softer side of popular music....
     Books
  • Permabooks
    Permabooks

    Permabooks was a paperback division of Doubleday , established by Doubleday in 1948. Although published by Doubleday's Garden City Publishing Company in Garden City, Long Island, the Permabooks editorial office was located at 14 West 49th Street in Manhattan....
  • Pocket Star Books—media tie in
  • Sonnet (defunct) - romance
  • Threshold Editions—conservative titles
  • Timescape (defunct) - science fiction
  • Wanderer Books (defunct) - former publisher of the Hardy Boys stories.
  • WWE
    World Wrestling Entertainment

    World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. is a publicly traded, privately controlled integrated arts and sports entertainment company dealing primarily in professional wrestling, with major revenue also coming from film, music, product licensing, and direct product sales....
     Books


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