Julian Messner
| Parent company | Simon & Schuster (1966–1998) |
|---|---|
| Status | Defunct (1999) |
| Founded | 1933 |
| Founder | Julian and Kathryn Messner |
| Successor | Pearson Education |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Headquarters location | New York City |
Julian Messner, Inc. was an American publishing house founded in 1933. Its best-selling books included 1956's Peyton Place. In the 1960s it became a division of Simon & Schuster, and continued as a children's imprint into the 1990s.
History
[edit]Julian Messner, previously an executive with Boni & Liveright, and his wife Kathryn founded the firm in 1933, opening an office on West 40th Street in Manhattan, and planning to publish juvenile books along with a small offering of adult books.[1] They published four books in their first year, including Senator Marlowe's Daughter by Frances Parkinson Keyes.[1]
When Julian Messner died in 1948, Kathryn (they divorced in 1944) became president. At first the idea of a woman president caused concern, and the board appointed a vice-president in charge of the president, an anomaly which soon became clear was not needed. She served as president until her death in August 1964; [2][3] the company was sold by the end of the year to Pocket Books.[4] Pocket was then acquired by Simon & Schuster in 1966, during the 1960s wave of consolidation in the publishing industry.[5]
"Julian Messner" continued as a children's imprint under Simon & Schuster (S&S). The imprint later fell under Macmillan Library Reference (S&S had acquired Macmillan, Inc., in 1994, and Pearson acquired the educational, professional, and reference businesses of S&S in 1998), and shut down six children's imprints including Julian Messner in 1999.[6][7]
In 1958, the company published a fictionalized biography of baseball player Warren Spahn for young readers, which was full of incorrect information and even positive false claims (such as claiming that Spahn had won a Bronze Star, which was untrue). Spahn prevailed in a lawsuit against Messner, which is a leading case in the concept of false light, a claim related to defamation.[8][9]
References
[edit]- ^ a b Toth, Emily. Inside Peyton Place: The Life of Grace Metalious (1980), p. 101.
- ^ "Mrs. Kathryn G. Messner, 61, Chief of Publishing House, Dies", The New York Times, August 5, 1964.
- ^ "Julian Messner, Publisher, Dead; Founder in 1933 and President of Book Firm Offered Award for Tolerance Volume", The New York Times, February 9, 1948.
- ^ "Messner Bought by Pocket Books", The New York Times, December 31, 1964.
- ^ Brier, Evan. A Novel Marketplace: Mass Culture, the Book Trade, and Postwar American Fiction, p. 123 (2010).
- ^ Hane, Paula J. (June 21, 1999). "Thomson’s Gale Group Acquires MacMillan Library Reference USA", NewsBreaks.
- ^ Milliot, Jim (31 May 1999). "Six Macmillan Library Kids Imprints Closed", Publishers Weekly.
- ^ Mathewson, Joe. Law and Ethics for Today's Journalist: A Concise Guide (2014), p. 81.
- ^ Yasser, Ray. "Warren Spahn's Legal Legacy: The Right to Be Free from False Praise", 18 Seton Hall. J. Sports & Enter L. 49 (2008).
| Pearson School |
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| Pearson Higher Education | |
| Pearson Professional |
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| Other | |
| Former/defunct companies | |
