Background
Richard Leo Simon was born March 6, 1899 in New York City, the son of Leo Leopold Simon, a milliner, and Anna Mayer. The family was intensely musical, and Simon early became an accomplished pianist.
Richard Leo Simon was born March 6, 1899 in New York City, the son of Leo Leopold Simon, a milliner, and Anna Mayer. The family was intensely musical, and Simon early became an accomplished pianist.
He attended the Ethical Culture School before entering Columbia University, from which he graduated in 1920.
During World War I he served briefly as a second lieutenant in the infantry at Plattsburgh, New York. Upon leaving college Simon went to work for William Grace and Co. , sugar importers, but soon found more congenial employment as a piano salesman for the Aeolian Company. Among his potential customers was another young Columbia graduate, Max Lincoln Schuster, who edited a motor trade magazine and shared Simon's enthusiasm for the writings of Romain Rolland. Through their common interest in books and music, the two men became close friends and Simon was encouraged to enter book publishing.
In 1921 he joined Boni and Liveright as a commission salesman; one year later he was sales manager. Simon's obvious talent for solving marketing and distribution problems led him to consider founding his own publishing company, and in 1924 he and Schuster pooled savings of approximately $8, 000 to establish Simon and Schuster.
From the beginning the new firm shocked its more staid rivals by pursuing a policy of unabashed commercialism. Although the partners appreciated literary excellence and aesthetic values, they concentrated on the production of best sellers, the success of which depended primarily upon flamboyant advertising and a shrewd assessment of popular taste. They catered uncritically to market demand.
Without a back list of authors, Simon later recalled, he and Schuster were forced to engage in "planned publishing" - a process by which they thought up marketable ideas and then commissioned writers to develop them into books. Their first such venture set the tone for much of their subsequent publishing activity. Acting on the suggestion of an aunt, Simon employed the puzzle editors of the New York World to compile a book of crossword puzzles in 1924.
This publication - the initial offering of the firm - appeared under the imprint of the Plaza Publishing Co. because, Schuster said, "We just did not want to be typed as game-book publishers at the start. " But its instant popularity - 50, 000 copies were sold in three months - soon led to the publication of further volumes at regular intervals under the Simon and Schuster imprint.
Novelty items, including "how-to" books, remained a conspicuous feature of the Simon and Schuster book lists, along with a number of other made-to-order works that reflected the partners' enthusiasms and idiosyncrasies. Simon's addiction to music, bridge, and photography was largely responsible for the publication of books by such figures as Leopold Stokowski, Deems Taylor, Igor Stravinsky, Sidney Lenz, Charles H. Goren, Margaret Bourke-White, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and Werner Bischof, as well as Simon's own Miniature Photography (1937).
He also introduced several noted German and Austrian writers to the American public, including Felix Salten, Hans Fallada, and Arthur Schnitzler, whose None but the Brave he translated for publication by the firm in 1926.
With characteristic verve he praised the current titles of his firm, chided booksellers and the public for neglecting past offerings, apologized for unattractive book jackets, congratulated rivals on fortunate coups, and pontificated on the state of culture in general. Schuster wrote a similar column under the same title twice a week for the New York Times, in a complementary effort to stimulate reader interest.
The partners' persistent quest for new markets culminated in 1939 with their founding of Pocket Books, Inc. , in association with Leon Shimkin, their business manager, and Robert F. de Graff. The new paperback concern filled a need for inexpensive, readily available reprints, sold through previously neglected outlets, such as newsstands and stationery stores.
By 1944, when Simon and Schuster sold their business to Marshall Field Enterprises, the value of their investment in Pocket Books had risen twenty-five times over. Although the terms of the merger permitted Simon to retain his executive position, the loss of genuine independence weighed upon him and gradually impaired his health and vitality.
In 1957 he suffered two heart attacks and retired from the company. He died in North Stamford, Connecticut, an unhappy man who talked vaguely until the end of establishing a new publishing house of his own.
Simon made his greatest contribution to the publishing industry by modernizing the methods of book promotion and distribution. He pioneered in the use of full-page newspaper advertisements, enclosed cards in his books to obtain reactions from readers, and launched massive prepublication campaigns to ensure the successful reception of doubtful works, such as Thomas Craven's A Treasury of Art Masterpieces (1939). That book, which relied exclusively upon color reproductions, was one of Simon's pet projects; the firm spent $60, 000 on advertising it. The returns were gratifying; advance sales totaled 42, 974 copies, and in a little over a year more than 100, 000 copies were sold. The book became a model for the production of art books in America. In addition to promoting books on an individual basis, Simon wrote a regular column entitled "From the Inner Sanctum" for the trade journal Publishers Weekly, from 1926 to 1935.
On August 3, 1934, Simon married Andrea Louise Heinemann; they had four children.
