Washington Square Press
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| Parent company | CBS Corporation |
|---|---|
| Status | Active |
| Founded | 1924 |
| Founders | |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Headquarters location | New York City |
| Distribution | Worldwide |
| Key people |
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| Publication types | Books |
| Imprints | Many |
| Official website | www.simonandschuster.com |
Simon & Schuster, Inc. (/ˈʃuːstər/), a subsidiary of CBS Corporation, is an American publishing company founded in New York City in 1924 by Richard Simon and Max Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster publishes 2,000 titles annually under 35 different imprints.
In 1924, Richard Simon's aunt, a crossword puzzle enthusiast, asked whether there was a book of New York World crossword puzzles, which were very popular at the time. After discovering that none had been published, Simon and Max Schuster decided to launch a company to exploit the opportunity. At the time, Simon was a piano salesman and Schuster was editor of an automotive trade magazine. They pooled US$8,000 to start a company to publish crossword puzzles, which turned out to be a craze that year.
"Fad" publishing became the business model for the new publishing house, which set out to exploit current fads and trends and publish books with commercial appeal. Simon called this "planned publishing". Instead of signing authors with a planned manuscript, they came up with their own ideas, and then hired writers to carry them out.
In the 1930, the publisher moved to what was known as "Publisher's Row" on Park Avenue in Manhattan, New York.
In 1939, with Robert Fair de Graff, Simon & Schuster founded Pocket Books, America's first paperback publisher.
In 1942, Simon & Schuster, or "Essandess" as it is called in the initial announcement, launched the Little Golden Books series in cooperation with the Artists and Writers Guild. Simon & Schuster's partner in the venture was the Western Printing and Lithographing Company, which handled the actual printing. Western Printing bought out Simon & Schuster's interest in 1958.
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