Parent company
Times Mirror Company (1962–1974)
Collins Publishers (1974–1980)
defunct 1980, some assets acquired by Putnam Publishing Group and Simon & Schuster
Commercial Bookbinding Co.
1902
Alfred H. Cahen
United States
Ben Zevin, William Targ
Books
Reference, Religion, Politics, Sports, Philosophy
Mystery, Popular fiction
Tower Books
History[edit]
Polish immigrant Alfred H. Cahen founded the Commercial Bookbinding Co. in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1902, expanding and adding a printing plant by 1912. In 1928 Cahen bought out his largest competitor, New York's World Syndicate Publishing Co., officially taking on the name World Publishing Co. in 1935. (At that point, the company added an office in New York City.)
At the time the largest publisher of the King James Bible,[5] in 1940 Cahen's son-in-law, Ben Zevin, expanded the company's output by publishing inexpensive editions of classic literature, which were sold in variety stores and drugstores as well as bookstores.[1] Under Zevin's leadership, in 1940 World Publishing introduced the hugely popular Tower Books imprint: a 49-cent line of hardcovers[1] which featured such authors as mystery writer Rex Stout. (This "Tower Books" was not related to the Tower Publications imprint that operated from 1958 to 1981.) From 1942 to 1964 William Targ worked as an editor for World Publishing, eventually becoming editor-in-chief.[6] As time passed, World Publishing expanded its repertoire to all types of fiction, nonfiction, sports, the classics, and philosophy.
The Times Mirror Company acquired World Publishing in 1962.[5] By this time, World Publishing was producing 12 million books a year,[1] one of only three American publishers to produce that much volume. In 1974, the Times Mirror Co. sold World Publishing to the U.K.-based Collins Publishers, with the trade publishing remaining with Times Mirror's New American Library subsidiary.
In 1980 Collins broke up World Publishing, selling its children's line to the Putnam Publishing Group, the dictionary line to Simon and Schuster, and otherwise ridding itself of World's assets.[1]