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Avon Publications is one of the leading publishers of
romance fiction A romance novel or romantic novel generally refers to a type of genre fiction novel which places its primary focus on the relationship and romantic love between two people, and usually has an "emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending." Pre ...
. At Avon's initial stages, it was an American
paperback book A paperback (softcover, softback) book is one with a thick paper or paperboard cover, and often held together with glue rather than stitches or staples. In contrast, hardcover (hardback) books are bound with cardboard covered with cloth, lea ...
and
comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...
publisher. The shift in content occurred in the early 1970s with multiple Avon romance titles reaching and maintaining spots in bestseller lists, demonstrating the market and potential profits in romance publication. As of 2010, Avon is an imprint of
HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News ...
.


Early history (1941–1971)

Avon Books was founded in 1941 by the American News Company (ANC) to create a rival to
Pocket Books Pocket Books is a division of Simon & Schuster that primarily publishes paperback books. History Pocket Books produced the first mass-market, pocket-sized paperback books in the United States in early 1939 and revolutionized the publishing ...
. They hired brother and sister Joseph Meyers and Edna Meyers Williams to establish the company. ANC bought out J.S. Ogilvie Publications, a
dime novel The dime novel is a form of late 19th-century and early 20th-century U.S. popular fiction issued in series of inexpensive paperbound editions. The term ''dime novel'' has been used as a catchall term for several different but related forms, r ...
publisher partly owned by both the Meyers, and renamed it "Avon Publications". They also got into comic books. "The early Avons were somewhat similar in appearance to the existing paperbacks of Pocket Books, resulting in an immediate and largely ineffective lawsuit by that company. Despite this superficial similarity, though, from early on Meyers differentiated Avon by placing an emphasis on popular appeal rather than loftier concepts of literary merit." The first 40 titles were not numbered. First editions of the first dozen or so have front and rear endpapers with an illustration of a globe. The emphasis on "popular appeal" led Avon to publish ghost stories, sexually-suggestive love stories,
fantasy novels Fantasy literature is literature set in an imaginary universe, often but not always without any locations, events, or people from the real world. Magic, the supernatural and magical creatures are common in many of these imaginary worlds. Fa ...
and
science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...
in its early years, which were far removed in audience appeal from the somewhat more literary Pocket Books competition. As well as normal-sized paperbacks, Avon published digest-format paperbacks (the size and shape of the present-day ''
Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine ''Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine'' is a bi-monthly American digest size fiction magazine specializing in crime fiction, particularly detective fiction, and mystery fiction. Launched in fall 1941 by Mercury Press, ''EQMM'' is named after the fict ...
'') in series. These included ''Murder Mystery Monthly'', ''Modern Short Story Monthly'' and '' Avon Fantasy Reader''. Many authors highly prized by present-day collectors were published in these editions, including
A. Merritt Abraham Grace Merritt (January 20, 1884 – August 21, 1943) – known by his byline, A. Merritt – was an American Sunday magazine editor and a writer of fantastic fiction. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame inducted him in 1999, ...
, James M. Cain, H. P. Lovecraft, Raymond Chandler and Robert E. Howard. In 1953, Avon Books sold books in the price range of 25¢ to 50¢ (for the Avon "G" series, the "G" standing for "Giant") and were selling more than 20 million copies a year. Their books were characterized by ''Time'' magazine as "westerns, whodunits and the kind of boy-meets-girl story that can be illustrated by a ripe cheesecake jacket". At around this time, Avon also began to publish under other imprints, including Eton (1951–1953), Novel Library, Broadway and Diversey. Avon's 35¢ "T" series, introduced in 1953, also had strong mass-market appeal and contains many outstanding examples of the then-popular
juvenile delinquent Juvenile delinquency, also known as juvenile offending, is the act of participating in unlawful behavior as a minor or individual younger than the statutory age of majority. In the United States of America, a juvenile delinquent is a person ...
story. The "T" series also contained many movie
tie-in A tie-in work is a work of fiction or other product based on a media property such as a film, video game, television series, board game, web site, role-playing game or literary property. Tie-ins are authorized by the owners of the original prop ...
editions and the stand-bys of mysteries and science fiction. Avon was bought by the Hearst Corporation in 1959. In the late 1960s there was a surge of interest in Satanism largely due to the emergence of Anton LaVey's
Church of Satan The Church of Satan is a religious organization dedicated to the religion of LaVeyan Satanism as codified in '' The Satanic Bible''. The Church of Satan was established at the Black House in San Francisco, California, on Walpurgisnacht, A ...
in 1966 and the success of Ira Levin's novel '' Rosemary's Baby'' in 1967. In 1968, an Avon editor named Peter Mayer approached Anton LaVey with the idea of publishing a "Satanic Bible", and he asked Anton to author it. Anton obliged, and in December 1969 ''
The Satanic Bible ''The Satanic Bible'' is a collection of essays, observations, and rituals published by Anton LaVey in 1969. It is the central religious text of LaVeyan Satanism, and is considered the foundation of its philosophy and dogma. It has been descri ...
'' was published as an Avon paperback.


History of Avon Romance (post-1972)

In 1972, Avon entered the modern
romance Romance (from Vulgar Latin , "in the Roman language", i.e., "Latin") may refer to: Common meanings * Romance (love), emotional attraction towards another person and the courtship behaviors undertaken to express the feelings * Romance languages, ...
genre with the publication of Kathleen Woodiwiss' ''
The Flame and the Flower ''The Flame and the Flower'' (published 1972) is the debut work of romance novelist Kathleen E. Woodiwiss. The first modern "bodice ripper" romance novel, the book revolutionized the historical romance genre. It was also the first full-length r ...
''. The novel went on to sell 2.35 million copies. Avon followed its release with the 1974 publication of Woodiwiss's second novel, '' The Wolf and the Dove''. The next two romances by newcomer
Rosemary Rogers Rosemary Rogers (née Jansz; 7 December 1932 – 12 November 2019) was a Sri Lankan Burgher best-selling author of historical romance novels. Her first book, ''Sweet Savage Love'', was published in 1974. She was the second romance author, after ...
, ''Sweet Savage Love'' and ''Dark Fires'', also published in 1974, reached bestseller status. The latter sold two million copies in its first three months of release and the former inspired the name of the genre: "sweet savage romances". In 1999, the
News Corporation News Corporation (abbreviated News Corp.), also variously known as News Corporation Limited, was an American multinational mass media corporation controlled by media mogul Rupert Murdoch and headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in New ...
bought out Hearst's book division. Avon's hardcover and non-romance paperback lines were moved to sister company
Morrow Morrow is a word meaning "the next day" in literary English. It also means "morning" in archaic English Morrow may also refer to: Places in the United States and Canada United States * Morrow, Arkansas *Morrow, Georgia * Morrow, Louisiana *Morr ...
, leaving Avon as solely a romance publisher. Avon launched the
erotica Erotica is literature or art that deals substantively with subject matter that is erotic, sexually stimulating or sexually arousing. Some critics regard pornography as a type of erotica, but many consider it to be different. Erotic art may use ...
imprint Avon Red in 2006. Avon developed the event KissCon in 2014, in order to serve the population of romance readers looking for more interaction with their authors and opportunities to strengthen their reading community connections. For its 75-year anniversary in 2016, Avon published 65 original titles, along with an anniversary edition of ''Shanna'', a romance novel by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss, published in 1977 that held a spot on the ''New York Times'' Best Seller list for over thirty weeks. In addition to the re-release, the book included a foreword by the more recent bestseller, and another author represented by Avon, Lisa Kleypas.


Avon Comics

From at least 1945 through the mid-1950s, Avon published comic books. Its titles included
horror fiction Horror is a genre of fiction which is intended to frighten, scare, or disgust. Horror is often divided into the sub-genres of psychological horror and supernatural horror, which is in the realm of speculative fiction. Literary historian ...
, science fiction,
Westerns The Western is a genre set in the American frontier and commonly associated with folk tales of the Western United States, particularly the Southwestern United States, as well as Northern Mexico and Western Canada. It is commonly referred ...
,
romance comics Romance comics is a comics genre depicting strong and close romantic love and its attendant complications such as jealousy, marriage, divorce, betrayal, and heartache. The term is generally associated with an American comic books genre published t ...
,
war comics War comics is a genre of comic books that gained popularity in English-speaking countries following World War II. History American war comics Shortly after the birth of the modern comic book in the mid- to late 1930s, comics publishers began incl ...
and
talking animal A talking animal or speaking animal is any non-human animal that can produce sounds or gestures resembling those of a human language. Several species or groups of animals have developed forms of communication which superficially resemble verbal ...
comics. Most titles lasted only a few issues, with the six longest-running detailed in the complete list below: *''All True Detective'' *''Atomic Spy Cases'' *''Attack On Planet Mars'' *''Avon Fantasy - An Earth Man On Venus'' *''Bachelor's Diary'' *''Badmen of the West'' *''Badmen of Tombstone'' *''Behind Prison Bars'' *''Betty and Her Steady'' *''The Blackhawk Indian Tomahawk War'' *''Blazing Six Guns'' *''Boy Detective'' *''Buddies in the U.S. Army'' *''Butch Cassidy'' *''Campus Romance'' *''Captain Silver's Log of the Sea Hound'' *''Captain Steve Savage'' (1950 and 1954 series) *''Chief Crazy Horse'' *''Chief Victorio's Apache Massacre'' *''City of the Living Dead'' *''Complete Romance'' *''Cow Puncher'' *''Custer's Last Fight'' *''The Dalton Boys'' *''Davy Crockett'' *''Diary of Horror'' *''
Eerie ''Eerie'' was an American magazine of horror comics introduced in 1966 by Warren Publishing. Like '' Mad'', it was a black-and-white magazine intended for newsstand distribution and did not submit its stories to the comic book industry's volunta ...
'' *''Escape from Devil's Island'' *''Famous Gangsters'' *''Fighting Daniel Boone'' *''Fighting Davy Crockett'' *''Fighting Indians of the Wild West!'' (plus 1952 annual) *''Fighting Undersea Commandos'' *''Flying Saucers'' (1950 and 1952 series) *''For a Night of Love'' *''Frontier Romances'' *''Funnies Annual'' *''Funny Tunes'' *''Gangsters and Gun Molls'' *''Geronimo'' *''Going Steady with Betty'' *''Jesse James'' (24 issues plus 1952 annual, 1950–56; no issues #10–14 published) *''King of the Bad Men of Deadwood'' *''King Solomon's Mines'' *''Kit Carson'' *''Last of The Comanches'' *''Little Jack Frost'' *''The Mask of Dr. Fu Manchu'' *''The Masked Bandit'' *''Merry Mouse'' *''Molly O'Day'' *''Murderous Gangsters'' *''Night of Mystery'' *''Out of This World'' *''Out of This World Adventures'' *''Outlaws of the Wild West'' *''Pancho Villa'' *''Parole Breakers'' *''Penny'' *''Peter Rabbit Comics'' (#1–6, 1947–1949) and ''Peter Rabbit'' (#7–34, 1950–56) *''Peter Rabbit Easter Parade'' (one-shot) *''Peter Rabbit Jumbo Book'' (one-shot) *''Phantom Witch Doctor'' *''Pixie Puzzle Rocket To Adventureland'' (one-shot) *''Police Line-Up'' *''Prison Break!'' *''Prison Riot'' *''Realistic Romances'' *''Red Mountain featuring Quantrell's Raiders'' *''Robotmen of the Lost Planet'' *''Rocket to the Moon'' *''Romantic Love'' (1949 and 1954 series) *''The Saint'' (12 issues, 1947–1952) *''The Savage Raids of Chief Geronimo'' *''Sea Hound'' *''Secret Diary of Eerie Adventures'' *''Sensational Police Cases'' *''Sheriff Bob Dixon's Chuck Wagon'' *''Sideshow'' *'' Slave Girl Comics'' *''Space Comics'' *''Space Detective'' *''Space Mouse'' *''Space Thrillers'' *''Sparkling Love'' *''Spotty the Pup'' *'' Strange Worlds'' (22 issues, 1950–1952, 1954–1955) *''Super Pup'' *''Teddy Roosevelt and His Rough Riders'' *''Television Puppet Show'' *''U.S. Marines in Action'' *''U.S. Paratroops'' *''U.S. Tank Commandos'' *''Undersea Fighting Commandos'' *''The Underworld Story *''The Unknown Man'' *''War Dogs of the U.S. Army'' *''Western Bandits'' *''White Chief of the Pawnee Indians'' *'' White Princess of the Jungle'' * ''Wild Bill Hickok'' (28 issues, 1949–1956) *''Witchcraft'' *''With the U.S. Paratroops Behind Enemy Lines''


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Avon (Publishers) Book publishing companies based in New York (state) Comic book publishing companies of the United States * Publishing companies based in New York City Publishing companies established in 1941 1941 establishments in New York City Defunct comics and manga publishing companies Avon Comics News Corporation subsidiaries