Simon & Schuster is the New York publisher founded in 1924 by Richard Simon and Lincoln Schuster, whose first book was a crossword collection; KKR has owned it since 2023.
Simon & Schuster is an American publisher founded in New York City in 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster, whose first book was a collection of crossword puzzles.
That book, The Cross Word Puzzle Book (1924), compiled by Margaret Petherbridge (later Margaret Farrar) and colleagues, was so uncertain a bet that the partners issued it under another imprint; it became a best seller and started the longest-running crossword series in publishing. Will Durant's The Story of Philosophy (1926) was the firm's first big success outside puzzles. In 1939 it backed Robert de Graff in founding Pocket Books, an early American mass-market paperback line, and in 1942 it launched Little Golden Books with Western Publishing.
Marshall Field bought the company in 1944; the founders bought it back after his death in 1957. Gulf+Western acquired it in 1975, and it then passed through Paramount Communications, Viacom (1994), CBS (2006) and Paramount Global. The investment firm KKR completed its purchase in October 2023, and in 2024 Simon & Schuster bought the Dutch publisher Veen Bosch & Keuning.
Holding a copy? The first edition checker shows Simon and Schuster's practice for the year on your title page.
Identification
How to identify Simon and Schuster first editions
What to look for
On Simon & Schuster books from the mid 1970s onwards, the printing is shown by a number line on the copyright page: the lowest number present is the printing, so a first printing includes 1, even when the line is laid out out of order, such as 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2.
Traps
Book club copies. A jacket with no price on the front flap points to a book club edition.
Revised editions. A 1 can appear in the number line of a revised or later edition, so check the title and copyright pages for an edition statement.
How do I identify a Simon and Schuster first edition?
On Simon & Schuster books from the mid 1970s onwards, the printing is shown by a number line on the copyright page: the lowest number present is the printing, so a first printing includes 1, even when the line is laid out out of order, such as 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2. Traps - Book club copies. A jacket with no price on the front flap points to a book club edition. - Revised editions. A 1 can appear i
How many Simon and Schuster books does MyVolumes track?
We track 34 editions published by Simon and Schuster, 27 of them first editions, across 33 books.
