Silhouette was a US paperback category romance house launched by Simon & Schuster in 1980, bought by Harlequin in 1984 and retired in 2011. It published Nora Roberts's first novel.
Silhouette is a publisher active from 1979. We track 375 editions it published between 1979 and 2011, 263 of them first editions across 324 books. How Silhouette marked its first editions is set out below, with a checker for the year on your title page.
About Silhouette
Silhouette was an American category romance publisher set up by Simon & Schuster in 1980 and bought by its rival Harlequin in 1984. It published the first novel of Nora Roberts.
Simon & Schuster had distributed Harlequin's books until Harlequin ended the contract in 1976, which left it with a large sales force and nothing to sell. It answered by launching Silhouette in 1980 as an in-house paperback division for romances by American writers, including authors Harlequin had turned away. Its lines were encouraged to try fresh kinds of hero and heroine and to take on contemporary social issues.
Roberts's debut, Irish Thoroughbred, came out in January 1981 as number 81 in the Silhouette Romance line, and between 1982 and 1984 she wrote 23 novels for Silhouette across several lines. Her first MacGregor family novel, Playing the Odds, followed in 1985.
After the 1984 purchase Silhouette kept its editorial control and its own imprint. Its lines included Romance, Desire, Special Edition, Intimate Moments and Shadows, a short-lived paranormal line launched in 1993. Harlequin retired the Silhouette name in April 2011, when the remaining series took the Harlequin brand.
Holding a copy? The first edition checker shows Silhouette's practice for the year on your title page.
Identification
How to identify Silhouette first editions
What to look for
1980s to 2000s
Silhouette was a paperback house. Its category romances came out as mass-market paperback originals in numbered lines, so the first edition of a line title is the first printing of that paperback; there is no earlier hardback.
Popular titles were reprinted quickly: Irish Thoroughbred had gone through five printings by 1984, so check the copyright page for any later printing note before calling a copy a first.
Many titles were later reissued, sometimes paired in omnibus volumes (Irish Thoroughbred returned with its sequel as Irish Hearts in 2000) or gathered into Harlequin collections. These reissues are not firsts.
From 2011
Harlequin dropped the Silhouette name in April 2011 and series such as Desire, Special Edition and Romantic Suspense became Harlequin lines. A book in one of those series dated 2011 or later and branded Harlequin continues the line; it is not a Silhouette edition.
1980s to 2000s - Silhouette was a paperback house. Its category romances came out as mass-market paperback originals in numbered lines, so the first edition of a line title is the first printing of that paperback; there is no earlier hardback. - Popular titles were reprinted quickly: Irish Thoroughbred had gone through five printings by 1984, so check the copyright page for any later printing note
How many Silhouette books does MyVolumes track?
We track 375 editions published by Silhouette, 263 of them first editions, across 324 books.
