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 was an American category romance publisher formed by Simon & Schuster in 1980 and bought by its rival Harlequin in 1984; it is best known among collectors for publishing Nora Roberts's first novel.
Simon & Schuster had distributed Harlequin's books in the United States until Harlequin ended the arrangement in 1976. Silhouette was launched in 1980 to publish American-written romances, many of them the kind of manuscript Harlequin had turned down, and its lines tried out new types of hero and heroine and took on social issues.
Nora Roberts's debut, Irish Thoroughbred, appeared in January 1981 as Silhouette Romance number 81, 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.
When Harlequin bought Silhouette from Simon & Schuster in 1984 it let the company keep editorial control and its own imprint. Its lines included Silhouette Romance, Desire and Special Edition. Harlequin itself passed from Torstar to News Corp in 2014 and is now a division of HarperCollins.
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 374 editions published by Silhouette, 262 of them first editions, across 324 books.
