Simon & Schuster

About Simon & Schuster

Simon & Schuster is an American trade publisher founded in New York City on 2 January 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster, and one of the "Big Five" English-language publishers.

The partners started with a crossword puzzle book. In 1939 they backed Robert de Graff in launching Pocket Books, which introduced mass-market pocket paperbacks to the United States. Marshall Field III bought the firm in 1944, and after his death in 1957 it was sold back for one million dollars. Gulf+Western acquired it in 1975, after which it passed through Paramount Communications, Viacom, CBS Corporation and Paramount Global. Kohlberg Kravis Roberts bought it for 1.62 billion dollars in a deal that closed in October 2023, and in March 2026 it named Greg Greeley as chief executive.

Simon & Schuster first published Joseph Heller's Catch-22 on 10 October 1961, at 5.95 dollars in hardback, and Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove in 1985, which won the 1986 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Its imprints include Scribner, Atria, Gallery, Pocket Books and Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, and it is based at 1230 Avenue of the Americas in Manhattan.

How to spot a Simon & Schuster first edition

• Up to the early 1950s Simon & Schuster put no first-edition statement in its books: a first printing has a clean copyright page, while later printings are noted there.
• Where a printing line appears on the copyright page, the lowest number shows the printing, whatever order the numbers run in; a line with a 1 normally indicates a first printing.
• Book club editions are a common trap: their jackets usually carry no price on the front flap, so a priced jacket is one of the first things to check.

US first editions

• Until about 1952 a Simon & Schuster first printing has a plain copyright page with no printing or edition note, while later printings are marked there, often with the printing number and date.
• Where a number row appears on the copyright page, the lowest figure is the printing, whatever order the figures run in (1 2 3 4 5, 1 3 5 4 2 or 5 4 3 2 1), so a row that still includes 1 normally means a first printing.
• Book-of-the-Month Club copies are usually the same size and quality as the trade edition, so size is no guide. Look instead for a jacket with no price on the front flap and a small blind stamp (a dot, circle or square) low on the rear board. BOMC printed prices on some jackets in the 1970s, but those copies still carry the blind stamp.
• A rear-board mark is not always a club sign: a few very large printings were shared between printing plants, each of which embossed its own mark.