Robert de Graff was the cousin of publisher Nelson Doubleday, and got his start with Garden City Publishing's "Star Dollar Books," moving to "Blue Ribbon Books" in 1936. He headed an imprint of Blue Ribbon called "Triangle Books" to experiment with paperback production, intent on finding a printing method that would enable him to sell copies at 25 cents each. De Graff was a shrewd businessman, able to convince Simon & Schuster to contribute financial backing.
Hoping for the best in sales, Pocket Books released an initial ten books in the New York market only, all popular classics, including "Bambi," Wuthering Heights," and "Five Tragedies" by Shakespeare, about 10,000 copies of each. Frank Lieberman designed the kangaroo insignia. He named her "Gertrude," after his mother-in-law. Lightweight, inexpensive, and available at supermarkets and drug stores, Pocket revolutionized the public's reading habits and their concept of books.
One of the best-selling volumes in the first Pocket Books series was "Murder of Roger Ackroyd" by Agatha Christie, a mystery title. Wondering about the possibility of an untapped market, de Graff continued to market several mysteries in each series by Pocket Books. By 1945, 40 percent of their releases were mysteries, though they continued to a wide variety of books. Also in 1945, Pocket created a series called "Teen-Age Book Club" and "Pocket Book Junior" for young readers. These books were often sold in schools, a predecessor to the Scholastic Magazine and Book Club.
By the early 1950s, Pocket Books had released the three all-time bestselling books published in the English Language: "Dr. Spock's Baby and Baby Care," "Merriam-Webster's Pocket Dictionary," and "Rand McNally Pocket Atlas." In 1980, Pocket Books purchased the rights to the Star Trek series from Bantam, and has since published hundreds of titles based on the popular movies/television show.
In 1951, Pocket Books Jr. became Scholastic Books. Later imprints under the Pocket Books name included "Library of Great Art," which published several oversized books on famous artists, "Library Classics," "Golden Press" and "Silhouette Books." Publisher Marshall Field III, founder of The Chicago Sun purchased Pocket Books in 1944, and kept it until his death in 1957. It was then purchased by Leon Shimkin who had been working for Simon & Schuster since 1924. In 1975, Pocket was sold to Gulf & Western, which owned Paramount Pictures at the time. That company is now owned by Viacom.