Pocket Books produced the first mass-market, pocket-sized paperback books in the United States in early 1939 and revolutionized the publishing industry. The German Albatross Books had pioneered the idea of a line of color-coded paperback editions in 1931 under Kurt Enoch, and Penguin Books in Britain had refined the idea in 1935 and had one million books in print by the following year. Pocket Books was founded by Richard L. Simon, M. Lincoln Schuster and Leon Shimkin, partners of Simon & Schuster, along with Robert de Graff. In 1944, the founding owners sold the company to Marshall Field III, owner of the Chicago Sun newspaper. Following Field's death, in 1957, Leon Shimkin, a Simon & Schuster partner, and James M. Jacobson bought Pocket Books for $5 million. Simon & Schuster acquired Pocket in 1966. Penguin's success inspired entrepreneur Robert de Graff, who partnered with publishers Simon & Schuster to bring it to the American market. Priced at 25 cents and featuring the logo of Gertrude the kangaroo, Pocket Books' editorial policy of reprints of light literature, popular non-fiction, and mysteries was coordinated with its strategy of selling books outside the traditional distribution channels. The format size, and the fact that the books were glued rather than stitched, were cost-cutting innovations. The first ten numbered Pocket Book titles published in 1939 with a print run of about 10,000 copies each:
The edition of Wuthering Heights hit the bestseller list, and by the end of the first year Pocket Books had sold more than 1.5 million units. Robert de Graff continued to refine his selections with movie tie-ins and greater emphasis on mystery novels, particularly those of Christie and Erle Stanley Gardner. Pocket and its imitators thrived during World War II because material shortages worked to their advantage. During the war, Pocket sued Avon Books for copyright infringement: among other issues, a New York state court found Pocket did not have an exclusive right to the pocket-sized format. Phyllis E. Grann who would later become the first woman CEO of a major publishing firm was promoted to run Pocket Books under then CEO Richard E. Snyder. Grann left for Putnam in 1976. In 1981, Dr. Benjamin Spock's Baby and Child Care was listed as their top seller, having sold 28 million copies at that time and having been acquired in 1946. In 1989, The Dieter by Susan Sussman became the first hard cover published by Pocket Books. Pocket is still known for publishing works of popular fiction based on movies or TV series, such as the Star Trek franchise and formerly Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Since first obtaining the Star Trek license from Bantam Books in 1979, Pocket has published hundreds of original and adapted works based upon the franchise and continues to publish a new novel every month. The author credited for one of the Buffy products is Gertrude Pocket, a reference to the company's kangaroo logo. Pocket Books is also the division that currently owns publication rights to the well-known work of James O'Barr, The Crow.
