Time Life is one of the world's creators and direct marketers of books, music, video/DVD, and multimedia products. Its products are sold throughout North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia through television, print, retail, the Internet, telemarketing, and direct sales.
Time-Life was founded in 1961 as the book division of Time Inc. It took its name from Time Inc.'s cornerstone magazines, Time and Life, but remained independent of both. By 1966, Time Life combined its book offerings with music collections (two to five records) and packaged them as a sturdy box set. Throughout the '70s and '80s, the selection of books, music and videos grew, diversifying into all genres. When record labels stopped producing vinyl albums in 1990, Time Life switched to CD only.
At the end of 2003 Time Life was acquired by Ripplewood Holdings L.L.C. and ZelnickMedia Corporation to become part of Direct Holdings Worldwide L.L.C. Direct Holdings Americas Inc. operates as a leader in the sale of music and video products under the Time Life brand.
Since 2003,
Direct Holdings US Corp is the legal name of Time Life, and is no longer owned by its former parent
Time WarnerTime Warner Inc. is the world's largest entertainment conglomerate , as well as the world's fourth largest media conglomerate, headquartered in the Time Warner Center in New York City...
. In March 2007, Ripplewood led a group that took
The Reader's Digest AssociationThe Reader’s Digest Association, Inc. is a global media and direct marketing company based in Chappaqua, New York, best known for its flagship publication founded in 1922, Reader's Digest...
private and has since put Time Life as a division of RDA.
TIME LIFE and the TIME LIFE logo are registered trademarks of Time Warner Inc.
and affiliated companies. Used under license by Direct Holdings Americas Inc.,
which is not affiliated with Time Warner Inc. or Time Inc.
The
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
television company,
Time Life Television was a producer of
BBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation, usually referred to by its abbreviation as the "BBC", is the longest established and largest broadcaster in the world...
programs, which was renamed
Lionheart Television in 1982.
Time Life Book Series
The Time Life company was founded by Time, Incorporated in 1961, as a book marketing division. It takes its name from
TimeTime is an American newsmagazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong. As of 2009, Time no longer publishes a Canadian advertiser edition...
and
LifeLife generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....
magazines, two of the most popular weeklies of the era. It was based in the Time Life building in
Rockefeller CenterRockefeller Center is a complex of 19 commercial buildings covering between 48th and 51st streets in New York City. Built by the Rockefeller family, it is located in the center of Midtown Manhattan, spanning the area between Fifth Avenue and Seventh Avenue. It was declared a National Historic...
.
Time Life gained fame as a seller of book series that would be mailed to households in monthly installments. Several of these book series garnered substantial critical acclaim unusual for a mass-market mail order house. For example, the series
Library of Photography of the early-1970s featured very high-quality duo-tone printing for its black-and-white reproductions in its original edition, and was of course able to draw on
Life Magazine's vast archive of journalistic and art photographs from virtually every major photographer;
Foods Of The WorldFoods of the World was a popular series of 27 cookbooks published by Time-Life, beginning in 1968 and extending through the early 1970s, that provided a broad survey of many of the world's major cuisines...
featured contributions by M.F.K. Fisher,
James BeardJames Andrew Beard was an American chef and food writer.-Importance:James Beard is the central figure in the story of the establishment of a gourmet American food identity. He was an eccentric personality who brought French cooking to the American middle and upper classes in the 1950s. Many...
,
Julia ChildJulia Child was an American chef, author and television personality. She introduced French cuisine and cooking techniques to the American mainstream through her many cookbooks and television programs, notably The French Chef which premiered in 1963...
,
Craig ClaiborneCraig Claiborne was an American restaurant critic, food writer and former food editor of the New York Times. He was the author of numerous cookbooks and an autobiography...
and many others; and
The Good Cook series, edited by
Richard OlneyRichard Olney was an American painter, cook, food writer, editor, and memoirist, best known for known for his books of French country cooking....
, featured contributions from
Jeremiah TowerJeremiah Tower is an American celebrity chef who, along with Wolfgang Puck and Alice Waters, is generally credited with developing the culinary style known as California cuisine.-Biography:...
,
Jane GrigsonJane Grigson was a British cookery writer.-Life and writings:She was born in Gloucester, England, and brought up in Sunderland, where her father George Shipley McIntire was town clerk...
, Michel Lemonnier and many others. Other series of high regard covered nature and the sciences, as well as the history of world civilizations. The science books are interesting as ephemera of their time. The content of these series was more or less encyclopedic, providing the basics of the subjects in the way it might be done in a lecture aimed at the general public. There was also a series on contemporary life in various countries of the world. Some other series are much less highly regarded, especially the later output as the publisher moved away from soberly presented science and history towards sensationalism, pop-history, and DIY-themed books. The books, whatever their quality, are easy to find at low prices on the used-book market, due to their being published in the millions of copies. (Some of the items in this list may also be single books not in a series, but followed the same types of themes as the book series.)
- The American Wilderness
- The Art of Sewing
- A Child's First Library Of Learning
A Child's First Library of Learning was a series of books created by Time-Life in the late 1980s to the late 1990s.
These books were :
Everyday Life
Insect World
Flowers and Trees...
, a series of educational books by Time–Life
- Classics of the Old West (not the same as "The Old West")
- Collector's Library of the Civil War
- The Emergence of Man
- Enchanted World Series, a best-selling Time–Life series, 21 volumes
- The Encyclopedia of Collectibles
- The Epic of Flight
- Family Library ("How Things Work in your Home", "The Time-Life Book of the Family Car", "The Time-Life Family Legal Guide", and "The Time-Life Book of Family Finance")
- Foods of the World
- The Good Cook
- Great Ages of Man—history of each of the major civilization
A civilization is a complex society or culture group characterized by dependence upon agriculture, long-distance trade, state form of government, occupational specialization, population, and class stratification.-Definition:...
s of human historyHistory is the study of the human past, with special attention to the written record. Scholars who write about history are called historians. It is a field of research which uses a narrative to examine and analyse the sequence of events, and it often attempts to investigate objectively the patterns...
- The Great Cities
- Home Repair and Improvement
- Human Behavior
- Library of Health
- Library of Nations
- The LIFE History of the United States
- LIFE Library of Photography
- LIFE Nature Library
The Life Nature Library was a popular series of hardbound books published by Time-Life between 1961 and 1965. Each of the 25 volumes explored a major topic of the natural world. They were intended for, and written at a level appropriate to, an educated lay readership.Each volume was written by a...
, 25 volumes
- LIFE Science Library
The Life Science Library was a popular series of hardbound books published by Time-Life between 1963 and 1967. Each of the 26 volumes explored a major topic of the natural sciences. They were intended for, and written at a level appropriate to, an educated lay readership...
, 26 volumes
- LIFE World Library
- Mysteries of the Unknown
Mysteries of the Unknown is a series of books about the paranormal, published by Time-Life Books from 1987 through 1991. Each book focused on a different topic, such as ghosts, UFOs, psychic powers and dreams. The series was very successful for Time-Life Books...
, a best-selling Time–Life series, 33 volumes
- The Old West
The Old West is a series of books about the fundamental founding of the American West, published by Time-Life Books from 1973 through 1980. Each book focused on a different topic, such as cowboys, indians, gamblers and gunfighters....
- Planet Earth Series
- The Seafarers Series
- This Fabulous Century
- Time Frame—A survey of history by time periods instead of by civilization
- Time–Life Library of America
- Time–Life Library of Art
- The Time–Life Library of Boating
- The Time–Life Library of Gardening
- Time Life Library of Curious and Unusual Facts
- Time Reading Program
- Understanding Computers
- Voyage Through the Universe—series on Astronomy
Astronomy is the scientific study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the Earth's atmosphere...
- Wild, Wild World of Animals
- The World's Wild Places
- Wings of War, 26 Volumes
- World War II, 31 volumes
Time Life no longer publishes books. The book division was closed down in 2003. The likely cause is that production and printing costs reached the point where people were unwilling to purchase them, even directly from the publisher.
Time Life Music
Time Life added music in 1962, selling box sets and collections through
Time Life Records, eventually advertising these collections through
infomercialInfomercials are long-format television commercials, typically five minutes or longer. Infomercials are also known as paid programming . This phenomenon started in the United States where infomercials were typically shown overnight --outside of peak hours...
s (including Country Music Explosion and Ultimate Rock Ballads), which often air in the early morning (3 am to 6 am). A few of these collections were not just music, but included books with the records as well, and some were not music at all, but informational, educational, or "audio documentaries", which tended to follow the themes of the Time–Life Books series. When Time merged with
Warner CommunicationsWarner Communications was established in 1972 when Kinney National Company spun off its non-entertainment assets, due to a financial scandal over its parking operations and changed its name....
in 1989, the label became a
Time WarnerTime Warner Inc. is the world's largest entertainment conglomerate , as well as the world's fourth largest media conglomerate, headquartered in the Time Warner Center in New York City...
division.
Warner Music GroupWarner Music Group is the third-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry, making it one of the "big four" record companies. The current incarnation of the company was formed in 2004 when it was spun off by Time Warner, and as a result, Time Warner no longer...
, which grouped all of Time-Warner's music companies (save for
New Line RecordsNew Line Records is a record label owned by Time Warner and operates as a division of New Line Cinema. Founded to release movie soundtracks, the label has grown beyond this initial purpose and has built a roster of indie rock acts such as The Sounds, OFFICE, Robbers on High Street, The Sights, and...
, which was merely distributed by WMG), was sold to a group of investors led by
Edgar Bronfman, Jr.Edgar Miles Bronfman, Jr. , formerly CEO of Seagram and vice-chairman of Vivendi Universal, has been CEO of Warner Music Group since 2004...
in late 2003.
A key selling point of these collections is that each track was digitally transferred to
CDA Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store sound recordings exclusively, but later it also allowed the preservation of other types of data. Audio CDs have been commercially available since October 1982...
using the original master recordings, as opposed to being "re-records" whereby only an old phonograph record, or an old radio copy is used for the transfer.
The following list shows many of the collections the company has released, but is by no means exhaustive.
- AM Gold (discontinued)
- Billboard #1 Hits of the 70's
- Classic Bluegrass (discontinued)
- Classic Country
- Classic Love Songs of the 60's
- Classic Rock (discontinued)
- Classic Rhythm and Blues
- Classic Soft Rock
Classic Soft Rock is a 10-volume soft rock CD set. It was released by Time-Life Records in 2006. It features 151 songs from the 1960s through the 1990s...
- Classic Love Songs of Rock N' Roll (discontinued)
- Country Music Explosion
- Country USA
Country USA was a 23-volume series issued by Time-Life Music during the late 1980s and early 1990s, spotlighting country music of the 1950s through early 1970s....
(discontinued)
- Disco Fever
- 80's Music Explosion
- The Fabulous Fifties
- Flower Power
- Folk Years (discontinued)
- Giants of Jazz (discontinued)
- Great American Songbook
- Golden Age of Country
- Hard & Heavy
- It All Started with Doo Wop
- Lifetime of Country Romance
- Lifetime of Romance
Lifetime of Romance was a 8-volume Love Songs CD Set. released by Time-Life Records in 2004, featuring 120 songs from the 1950's through the 1980's but it was never sold in stores.- Disc 1 :# Beyond the Sea...
(discontinued)
- Legends: The Ultimate Rock (discontinued)
- Magic of Love
- Malt Shop Memories
- Midnight Soul
- The Motown Collection
- Opry Video Classics
- Oldies But Goodies
- Prom Night
- Rock N' Roll Era (discontinued)
- Rock N' Roll: Legendary Years (discontinued)
- Romancing the 70's
- Classic Soul Ballads
Classic Soul Ballads is a 16-volume soul CD-set, released by Time–Life Records in 2005, featuring 264 songs from the 1960s through the 1990s...
- 70's Music Explosion
- Singers & Songwriters
- 60's Gold (discontinued)
- Songs 4 Ever (discontinued)
- Soul Story
- Sounds of the Seventies (discontinued)
- Sounds of the Eighties (discontinued)
- Sounds of the Nineties (discontinued)
- Superstars of Country
- Superstars of the 80's
- Sweet Soul of the 70's
- The Rock Collection (discontinued)
- To The Moon, a 6-record set: a documentary with accompanying book about the early space program, the space race, the missions to the moon and the first moon landing, published soon after Apollo 11
The Apollo 11 mission was the first human spaceflight to land on the Moon. Launched on July 16, 1969, it carried Mission Commander Neil Alden Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins, and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin Eugene 'Buzz' Aldrin, Jr...
completed its mission to the moon. (discontinued)
- Ultimate Seventies (discontinued)
- Ultimate Love Songs
Ultimate Love Songs is a 14-volume soft rock CD-set, featuring 240 songs from the 1960s through the 1990s. It was released in 2005 by Time-Life Records, but is not sold in stores.- Disc 1 :...
- Ultimate Rock Ballads
- Uptown Saturday Night
- Your Hit Parade (discontinued)
Controversy
In recent years, the company has been subject to bad press due to questionable billing practices. Some customers claim that they have been tricked into purchasing multiple CDs from Time Life. Buyers, wishing to purchase single CDs, do not fully understand that they are entering into "Continuity Programs," despite the promotional advertisements stating they will be introduced into a series of CDs shipped "every few weeks," automatically billing the credit card. Critics contend that the company's disclosure about automatic follow-up orders is intentionally and deceptively placed in areas where it is unlikely to be read. Time Life does, however, back every product with a 60 day money-back guarantee and the customer's account will be refunded upon receipt of the returned item. As a benefit, customers can call customer service to cancel at any time, whereas services such as BMG Music Service and
Columbia HouseColumbia House operates a music and DVD club, and as such is a direct seller of DVD movies and box sets, offering its selections through “club membership” agreements.-Membership:...
(which have since merged) require the customer to buy a certain number of CDs before they can cancel.
External links