Simon & Schuster
Encyclopedia
Simon & Schuster, Inc., a division of CBS Corporation
CBS Corporation
CBS Corporation is an American media conglomerate focused on commercial broadcasting, publishing, billboards and television production, with most of its operations in the United States. The President and CEO of the company is Leslie Moonves. Sumner Redstone, owner of National Amusements, is CBS's...

, is a publisher founded in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 in 1924 by Richard L. Simon
Richard L. Simon
Richard Leo Simon was an American businessman, Columbia University graduate, and co-founder of the publishing house Simon & Schuster. Born in New York City, his brother was music critic and author George T...

 and M. Lincoln ("Max") Schuster. It is one of the four largest English-language publishers, alongside Random House
Random House
Random House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...

, Penguin
Penguin Group
The Penguin Group is a trade book publisher, the largest in the world , having overtaken Random House in 2009. The Penguin Group is the name of the incorporated division of parent Pearson PLC that oversees these publishing operations...

 and HarperCollins
HarperCollins
HarperCollins is a publishing company owned by News Corporation. It is the combination of the publishers William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd, a British company, and Harper & Row, an American company, itself the result of an earlier merger of Harper & Brothers and Row, Peterson & Company. The worldwide...

. It publishes over two thousand titles annually under 35 different imprints.

Early years

Crossword puzzle
Crossword Puzzle
For the common puzzle, see CrosswordCrossword Puzzle was the second to last album made by The Partridge Family and was not one of the most popular albums. It was released in 1973 and did not produce a U.S. single. This album was finally released on CD in 2003 on Arista's BMG Heritage label...

s first appeared in the New York World
New York World
The New York World was a newspaper published in New York City from 1860 until 1931. The paper played a major role in the history of American newspapers...

in 1913, and soon became a popular feature in newspapers. In 1924, Simon's aunt, a crossword puzzle devotee, asked Simon 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.

To attract attention, the book came with a pencil attached. The advertising campaign implied that it was about to become a new fad:
  • 1921 — Coué
    Autosuggestion
    Autosuggestion is a psychological technique that was developed by apothecary Émile Coué from the late 19th century to the early 20th century.-Origins:...

  • 1922 — Mah Jong
    Mahjong
    Mahjong, sometimes spelled Mah Jongg, is a game that originated in China, commonly played by four players...

  • 1923 — Bananas
  • 1924 — The crossword-puzzle book


The ad proved prophetic, and crossword puzzles were indeed the craze of 1924. Simon & Schuster continues to be the preeminent U.S. publisher of crossword puzzle books.

Expansion

In 1939, with Robert Fair de Graff, Simon & Schuster founded Pocket Books
Pocket Books
Pocket Books is a division of Simon & Schuster that primarily publishes paperback books.- History :Pocket produced the first mass-market, pocket-sized paperback books in America in early 1939 and revolutionized the publishing industry...

, America's first paperback publisher.

In 1942, Simon & Schuster, or "Essandess" as it is called in the initial announcement, launched the Little Golden Books
Little Golden Books
Little Golden Books is a popular series of children's books. The first 12 titles were published on October 1, 1942:#Three Little Kittens#Bedtime Stories#Mother Goose#Prayers for Children#The Little Red Hen#Nursery Songs...

 series in cooperation with the Artists and Writers Guild. Simon & Schuster's partner in the venture was the Western Printing and Lithographing Company
Western Publishing
Western Publishing, also known as Western Printing and Lithographing Company was a Racine, Wisconsin firm responsible for publishing the Little Golden Books. Western Publishing also produced children's books and family-related entertainment products as Golden Books Family Entertainment...

 which handled the actual printing. Western Printing bought out Simon & Schuster's interest in 1958.

In 1944, Marshall Field III
Marshall Field III
Marshall Field III was an American investment banker, publisher, racehorse owner/breeder, philanthropist, heir to the Marshall Field department store fortune and a leading financial supporter and founding board member of Saul Alinsky's community organizing network Industrial Areas Foundation.Born...

, owner of the Chicago Sun
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...

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 acquired Pocket Books.

Corporate ownership

In 1975, Gulf+Western
Gulf+Western
Gulf and Western Industries, Inc., for a number of years known as Gulf+Western, was an American conglomerate.- History :Gulf and Western's prosaic origins date to a manufacturer named Michigan Bumper Co. founded in 1934, though Charles Bluhdorn treated his 1958 takeover of what was then Michigan...

 acquired the company, and nine years later, Prentice Hall
Prentice Hall
Prentice Hall is a major educational publisher. It is an imprint of Pearson Education, Inc., based in Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, USA. Prentice Hall publishes print and digital content for the 6-12 and higher-education market. Prentice Hall distributes its technical titles through the Safari...

 was brought into the company fold, followed by mapmaker Gousha
Gousha
The H.M. Gousha Company was one of the "Big Three" major producers of road maps and atlases in the United States during the 25 years following World War II, making maps for free distribution by Oil Companies and auto clubs...

 in 1987. G+W would change its name to Paramount Communications in 1989.

In 1994, Paramount was sold to the original Viacom, allowing S&S to launch several new imprints in conjunction with channels owned by Viacom's MTV Networks
MTV Networks
MTV Networks is a division of media conglomerate Viacom that oversees the operations of many television channels and Internet brands, including the original MTV channel in the United States...

. Simon & Schuster's first move under Viacom was the acquisition of Macmillan USA
Macmillan Publishers (United States)
Macmillan Publishers USA, also known as Macmillan Publishing, is a privately held American publishing company owned by the Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group. It has offices in 41 countries worldwide and operates in more than 30 others....

.

In 1996, Viacom sold Gousha to longtime rival Rand McNally
Rand McNally
Rand McNally is an American publisher of maps, atlases, textbooks, and globes for travel, reference, commercial, and educational uses. It also provides online consumer street maps and directions, as well as commercial transportation routing software and mileage data...

, who closed the Gousha offices in Texas and discontinued all product lines.

In 1998, Viacom sold Simon & Schuster's educational operations, including Prentice Hall and Macmillan, to Pearson PLC
Pearson PLC
Pearson plc is a global media and education company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is both the largest education company and the largest book publisher in the world, with consumer imprints including Penguin, Dorling Kindersley and Ladybird...

, becoming part of Pearson Education
Pearson Education
Pearson Education is an international educational publishing and technology company providing textbooks and other educational material, such as multimedia learning tools...

.

Viacom would split into 2 companies at the end of 2005: one called CBS Corporation
CBS Corporation
CBS Corporation is an American media conglomerate focused on commercial broadcasting, publishing, billboards and television production, with most of its operations in the United States. The President and CEO of the company is Leslie Moonves. Sumner Redstone, owner of National Amusements, is CBS's...

 (which inherited S&S), and the other retaining the Viacom
Viacom
Viacom Inc. , short for "Video & Audio Communications", is an American media conglomerate with interests primarily in, but not limited to, cinema and cable television...

 name. Despite the split, National Amusements
National Amusements
National Amusements, Inc. is a privately owned theatre company based in Dedham, Massachusetts, USA. The company was founded in 1936 as the Northeast Theatre Corporation by Michael Redstone....

 retains majority control of both firms. As such, S&S continues to publish books based on Viacom properties, which since 2006 has included many DreamWorks
DreamWorks
DreamWorks Pictures, also known as DreamWorks, LLC, DreamWorks SKG, DreamWorks II Distribution Co., LLC, DreamWorks Studios or DW Studios, LLC, is an American film studio which develops, produces, and distributes films, video games and television programming...

 films (Paramount/Viacom owned DreamWorks outright between 2006-08, back catalog still owned by Paramount/Viacom).

As part of CBS, Simon & Schuster is the primary publisher for books related to various media franchises owned by CBS, such as Mission: Impossible
Mission: Impossible
Mission: Impossible is an American television series which was created and initially produced by Bruce Geller. It chronicled the missions of a team of secret American government agents known as the Impossible Missions Force . The leader of the team was Jim Phelps, played by Peter Graves, except in...

, Star Trek
Star Trek
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...

and CSI.

United States

  • Stephen E. Ambrose
  • Holly Black
    Holly Black
    Holly Black née Riggenbach is an American writer and editor, best known for writing The Spiderwick Chronicles, a series of children's fantasy books she created with illustrator Tony DiTerlizzi.-Early life and education:...

  • Sandra Brown
    Sandra Brown
    Sandra Lynn Brown is an American bestselling author of romantic novels and thriller suspense novels. Brown has also published works under the pen names of Rachel Ryan, Laura Jordan, and Erin St. Claire....

  • A. S. Byatt
    A. S. Byatt
    Dame Antonia Susan Duffy, DBE is an English novelist, poet and Booker Prize winner...

  • Jimmy Carter
    Jimmy Carter
    James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...

  • Cassandra Clare
    Cassandra Clare
    Cassandra Clare is an American author who has written the bestselling young adult saga The Mortal Instruments.- Personal life :Cassandra Clare was born to American parents in Tehran. As a child Clare traveled frequently, spending time in Switzerland, England, and France...

  • Mary Higgins Clark
    Mary Higgins Clark
    Mary Theresa Eleanor Higgins Clark Conheeney , known professionally as Mary Higgins Clark, is an American author of suspense novels...

  • Hillary Clinton
  • Heidi Cortez
    Heidi Cortez
    Heidi Cortez is an American entrepreneur . In November 2005, Cortez was hired by Howard Stern to be the radio host and co-writer for the show Tissue Time with Heidi Cortez Sirius XM satellite radio channel. On the show, Cortez read saucy, comical, bedtime stories to listeners at the end of the day...

  • Hilary Duff
    Hilary Duff
    Hilary Erhard Duff is an American actress, singer-songwriter, entrepreneur, and author. After working in local theater plays and television commercials in her childhood, she achieved fame playing the title role in the Disney Channel television series Lizzie McGuire. She also reprised her role in...

  • Jesse Duplantis
    Jesse Duplantis
    Jesse Duplantis is an Evangelical Charismatic Christian minister based in New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S., and the founder of Jesse Duplantis Ministries.-Biography :...

  • Bob Dylan
    Bob Dylan
    Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...

  • Janet Evanovich
    Janet Evanovich
    Janet Evanovich is an American writer. She began her career writing short contemporary romance novels under the pen name Steffie Hall, but gained fame authoring a series of contemporary mysteries featuring Stephanie Plum, a lingerie buyer from Trenton, New Jersey, who becomes a bounty hunter to...

  • Becca Fitzpatrick
    Becca Fitzpatrick
    Becca Fitzpatrick is an American author, best known for having written the New York Times bestseller, Hush, Hush....

  • Doris Kearns Goodwin
    Doris Kearns Goodwin
    Doris Kearns Goodwin is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American biographer and historian, and an oft-seen political commentator. She is the author of biographies of several U.S...

  • Ursula K. Le Guin
    Ursula K. Le Guin
    Ursula Kroeber Le Guin is an American author. She has written novels, poetry, children's books, essays, and short stories, notably in fantasy and science fiction...

  • Walter Isaacson
    Walter Isaacson
    Walter Isaacson is a writer and biographer. He is the President and CEO of the Aspen Institute, a nonpartisan educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C. He has been the Chairman and CEO of CNN and the Managing Editor of TIME...

  • Malalai Joya
    Malalai Joya
    Malalai Joya is an activist, writer and a former politician from Afghanistan. She served as a Parliamentarian in the National Assembly of Afghanistan from 2005 until early 2007, after being dismissed for publicly denouncing the presence of what she considered to be warlords and war criminals in...

  • David McCullough
    David McCullough
    David Gaub McCullough is an American author, narrator, historian, and lecturer. He is a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award and a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States' highest civilian award....

  • Sylvia Nasar
    Sylvia Nasar
    Sylvia Nasar is a German-born American economist and author, best known for her biography of John Forbes Nash, A Beautiful Mind.- Early life and history :...

  • Audrey Niffenegger
    Audrey Niffenegger
    Audrey Niffenegger is an American writer, artist and academic.-Writing:A film version of Niffenegger's debut novel, The Time Traveler's Wife , starring Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams, was released in August 2009.She has also written a graphic novel, or "novel in pictures" as Niffenegger calls it,...

  • Gilda Radner
    Gilda Radner
    Gilda Susan Radner was an American comedian and actress, best known as one of the original cast members of the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live, for which she won an Emmy Award in 1978.-Early life:...

  • Dave Ramsey
    Dave Ramsey
    David L. Ramsey III is an American financial author, radio host, television personality, and motivational speaker.Ramsey's syndicated radio program The Dave Ramsey Show is promoted with a tagline that "It's about your life and your money," and it is heard on over 450 radio stations throughout the...

  • Richard Rhodes
    Richard Rhodes
    Richard Lee Rhodes is an American journalist, historian, and author of both fiction and non-fiction , including the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Making of the Atomic Bomb , and most recently, The Twilight of the Bombs...

  • Rachel Renee Russell
    Rachel Renee Russell
    Rachel Renee Russell is an American author and illustrator of the humorous children’s book series, Dork Diaries.- Life :Rachel Renee Russell was born and raised in Saint Joseph, Michigan, and currently resides in northern Virginia. She is the oldest child and has two younger twin brothers and two...

  • R. L. Stine
    R. L. Stine
    Robert Lawrence Stine , known as R. L. Stine, and Jovial Bob Stine, is an American writer. Stine, who is called the "Stephen King of children's literature," is the author of hundreds of horror fiction novels, including the books in the Fear Street, Goosebumps, Rotten School, Mostly Ghostly, and The...

  • Taboo (rapper)
    Taboo (rapper)
    Jaime Luis Gómez , better known by his stage name Taboo, is an American singer, actor, and rapper best known as a member of the group The Black Eyed Peas.-Personal life:...

  • Lauren Weisberger
    Lauren Weisberger
    Lauren Weisberger is an American novelist and author of the 2003 bestseller The Devil Wears Prada, a speculated roman à clef of her real life experience as a put-upon assistant to Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour....

  • Bob Woodward
    Bob Woodward
    Robert Upshur Woodward is an American investigative journalist and non-fiction author. He has worked for The Washington Post since 1971 as a reporter, and is currently an associate editor of the Post....

  • Linda Yellin
    Linda Yellin
    Linda Yellin is an American memoirist, novelist, and humorist. Her original birth name was Melinda Jacobson. She first lived in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois until her family moved to Lincolnwood, Illinois. When she was 15 she was adopted by her stepfather and changed her name...


United Kingdom

  • Jackie Collins
    Jackie Collins
    Jacqueline Jill "Jackie" Collins is an English novelist and former actress. She is the younger sister of actress Joan Collins. She has written 28 novels, all of which have appeared on the New York Times bestsellers list. In total, her books have sold over 400 million copies and have been...

  • Joan Collins
    Joan Collins
    Joan Henrietta Collins, OBE , is an English actress, author, and columnist. Born in Paddington and raised in Maida Vale, Collins grew up during the Second World War. At the age of nine, she made her stage debut in A Doll's House and after attending school, she was classically trained as an actress...

  • Mark Gatiss
    Mark Gatiss
    Mark Gatiss is an English actor, screenwriter and novelist. He is best known as a member of the comedy team The League of Gentlemen, and has both written for and acted in the TV series Doctor Who and Sherlock....

  • Richard Madeley
    Richard Madeley
    Richard Madeley is a British television presenter and columnist. With his wife Judy Finnigan, Madeley has presented This Morning and later the weekday chat show Richard & Judy...

  • Mark Radcliffe
    Mark Radcliffe
    Mark Radcliffe is an English broadcaster who has worked in various roles for the BBC since the 1980s and remains one of Britain's most recognised DJs. He is currently a presenter on BBC Radio 2 and BBC 6 Music, where he hosts an afternoon show five times a week alongside Stuart Maconie, called...


Imprints

In addition to the main Simon & Schuster imprint are the following:

Adult

  • Atria
  • Beyond Words Publishing
    Beyond Words Publishing
    Beyond Words Publishing is a book publishing company located in Hillsboro, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1983, the company was unprofitable in its early years, though its works were award winning. The privately owned company focuses on non-fiction titles in the New Age genre, but began as a...

     (specializes in publishing new age, self help, and inspiration stories with a "spiritual" focus.)
  • Free Press
    Free Press (publisher)
    Free Press is a book publishing imprint of Simon and Schuster. It was founded by Jeremiah Kaplan and Charles Liebman in 1947 and was devoted to sociology and religion titles. It was headquartered in Glencoe, Illinois, where it was known as The Free Press of Glencoe...

  • Gallery Books
  • Howard Books
  • Pocket Books
    Pocket Books
    Pocket Books is a division of Simon & Schuster that primarily publishes paperback books.- History :Pocket produced the first mass-market, pocket-sized paperback books in America in early 1939 and revolutionized the publishing industry...

  • Scribner
    Charles Scribner's Sons
    Charles Scribner's Sons, or simply Scribner, is an American publisher based in New York City, known for publishing a number of American authors including Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Kurt Vonnegut, Stephen King, Robert A. Heinlein, Thomas Wolfe, George Santayana, John Clellon...

  • Strebor
  • The Touchstone and Fireside Group
  • Threshold Editions
    Threshold Editions
    Threshold Editions is an imprint of Simon & Schuster — the publishing division of CBS Corporation — specializing in conservative non-fiction. Louise Burke is the publisher, Anthony Ziccardi is the deputy publisher, and the imprint's senior editors include Mitchell Ivers, Kathy Sagan,...

     (specializes in publishing politically right-of-center books, including Jerome R. Corsi's controversial The Obama Nation)
  • Mercury Ink

Young adults and children

  • Aladdin
    Aladdin Paperbacks
    Aladdin Paperbacks is one of several children's-book imprints owned by Simon & Schuster.It was established by Jean E. Karl at Atheneum Books where she was the founding director of the children's department . Atheneum merged with or was acquired by Scribner's in 1978, then MacMillan in 1984, before...

  • Atheneum
    Atheneum Books
    Atheneum Books was a publishing house and adult publisher created by Alfred A. Knopf, Jr. in 1959. He recruited editor Jean E. Karl personally, to come and establish a Children's Book Department in 1961....

     - initially (1959) a publishing house and adult imprint, it now publishes children's titles, formerly just part of its output.
  • Beach Lane Books
  • Little Simon
  • Margaret K. McElderry Books
  • Paula Wiseman
  • Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
  • Simon Pulse
  • Simon Spotlight

See also

  • The Big Six book publishers:
    • Hachette
      Hachette
      - People :* Jean Nicolas Pierre Hachette, French mathematician* Jeanne Hachette, French heroine* Louis Christophe François Hachette, French publisher- Entities :* a French group of publishing companies, see Hachette and Hachette Filipacchi Médias...

      , Holtzbrinck/Macmillan, Penguin Putnam, HarperCollins
      HarperCollins
      HarperCollins is a publishing company owned by News Corporation. It is the combination of the publishers William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd, a British company, and Harper & Row, an American company, itself the result of an earlier merger of Harper & Brothers and Row, Peterson & Company. The worldwide...

       and Random House
      Random House
      Random House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...

  • List of largest UK book publishers
  • Media of New York City
    Media of New York City
    The media of New York City are internationally influential, and include some of the most important newspapers, largest publishing houses, most prolific television studios, and biggest record companies in the world...



External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK