Simon & Schuster celebrate 90 years of publishing

Shelf Awareness

Max Lincoln Schuster and Richard L. Simon In 1924, Richard L. Simon, a former piano salesman who had worked in sales at the legendary Boni & Liveright publishing house, and Max Lincoln Schuster, an editor at an automobile association's trade magazine, set up their eponymous publishing house--with no employees or manuscripts, but with the then revolutionary idea of coming up with ideas for books and then finding authors to write them. (A year later, they  were the first publisher to offer booksellers credit for returned unsold books.) The first book idea came from Simon's aunt, who wished she could give a sick friend a collection of crossword puzzles, which were a new fad. Simon and Schuster worked with the crossword editors of the New York Sunday World and on April 10, 1924, published The Cross Word Puzzle Book, the first ever crossword book, which sold more than 100,000 copies in the first nine months of publication. From that unlikely beginning, Simon & Schuster evolved into one of the preeminent publishers in the country, particularly in nonfiction. Besides a strength in health and fitness and self-improvement, it has published a litany of bestsellers over the years that chronicle some of the most important cultural and political periods and figures in American and world history. Simon & Schuster has published most or all titles by the historians and biographers David McCullough, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Justin Kaplan, Richard Rhodes, William Shirer, Taylor Branch, Will and Ariel Durant and Bob Woodward, as well as books by former presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter and former Senator and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (her new memoir is appearing this year). The house's fiction list has been strong, too, including work by James Lee Burke, Martin Cruz Smith, Larry McMurtry and Mary Higgins Clark. Recently Herman Wouk and Ray Bradbury made return appearances at Simon & Schuster. (See below for more on Simon & Schuster's striking titles from the past and upcoming titles.) Now, in its 90th year, Simon & Schuster is expanding its fiction program and aims to build the same reputation in fiction that it has long had in nonfiction. As publisher Jonathan Karp put it, "We are the gold standard for nonfiction and we intend to perform some alchemy for fiction." Editor-in-chief Marysue Rucci, who is in charge of the fiction program, added, "We're acquiring a really high caliber of novel now, whether in the commercial or literary realm." As an example, she pointed to The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion, published last October, a debut novel about a genetics professor unlucky in love who decides to take a scientific approach to finding a wife--an endeavor he calls the Wife Project--which runs into the reality of the beguiling Rosie Jarman. Jonathan Karp Since joining Simon & Schuster in 2010 from Twelve and before that Random House, Karp has blended new hires with a tried and true staff and made changes in the imprint's approach to publishing. Now Rucci noted, "There's an entrepreneurial spirit here." Associate publisher Richard Rhorer added: "This company is nimble. What really distinguishes Simon & Schuster is getting a book, getting it done and getting it out." He pointed to staff who regularly go beyond the norms, for example, "trekking to Central Park West at four in the morning in the snow to edit a manuscript." He added that Simon & Schuster is helped by the counsel of Simon & Schuster, Inc., president and CEO Carolyn Reidy, who was the publisher of the imprint for many years. At the same time, the company is continuing to publish the icons it has nourished and developed over the years. As Karp noted, "There is a long tradition at Simon & Schuster of staying with authors and authors staying with Simon & Schuster. We want to uphold that over the next 90 years."