Leon Shimkin
| Leon Shimkin | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1907 |
| Died | 1988 |
| Occupation | Publisher |
| Spouse(s) | Rebecca Shimkin |
| Children | Emily Gindin Michael Shimkin |
Leon Shimkin (1907 – 1988) was an American businessman who helped to build Simon & Schuster into a major publishing company. Shimkin rose to become chairman of the board and owner of Simon & Schuster until he sold it to Gulf + Western in 1975.
Leon Shimkin was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1907 to Lithuanian Jewish immigrants. Shimkin had just completed his first year at New York University when he joined Boni & Liveright and then Simon & Schuster as a bookkeeper at age 17. Shimkin continued his studies at New York University in the evenings.
After joining Simon & Schuster in 1924, Leon rose through the ranks to become the chairman of the board and an owner of the company. Shimkin worked as a bookkeeper and business manager for the original Simon & Schuster partners-- Richard L. Simon and M.Lincoln Schuster. Dick Simon called Shimkin "Our Little Golden Nugget" for his creative approaches to solving their money problems. He made incremental income for the company by selling rights to its books—such as selling rights to Hollywood studios and selling parts of company's crossword-puzzle books to newspapers. He also persuaded the IRS to adopt a new rule for book publishers that allowed them to reinvest book earnings for the benefit of future books.
Shimkin was not only a business manager but also came up with ideas for books that went on to become bestsellers especially in areas of self-improvement and self-help. After listening to one of Dale Carnegie's lectures, Shimkin came up with the idea for Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People which would go on to be the biggest bestseller in the Simon & Schuster's early history. Shimkin also persuaded Rabbi Joshua Loth Liebman to write the book Peace of Mind which was a bestseller from 1946-48.
Shimkin was also responsible for J.K. Lasser's tax books. Simon & Schuster was already publishing a guide that wasn't selling well, and Shimkin called tax expert J.K. Lasser and asked him to write the third edition of Your Income Tax. He told Lasser to "keep the guide simple and readable. Write short sentences and use one-syllable words whenever possible." At its height, the book sold a million copies a year.
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