World Publishing Company

Charles A. Madison, BOOK PUBLISHING IN AMERICA 525 (1966):

In April [1960 World Publishing Co.] acquired Meridian Books by an exchange of stock, a paperback firm doing a business of $600,000 a year. Arthur A. Cohen, its founder, was engaged as vice-president in charge of the firm’s paperbacks.

John Tebbel, 4 A HISTORY OF BOOK PUBLISHING IN THE UNITED STATES 246-47 (1981):

In the early sixties, World was flourishing under Targ and Zevin. . . . The children’s book division was also doing well under its editor, Velma Varner; and so was its quality paperback line, Meridien [Sic] Books, which had been founded by Arthur A. Cohen. At this point, World was a half-century old, it was issuing encouraging profit statements every year, and its future could only be viewed with optimism. In short, considering the climate of the sixties, it was ripe for a takeover.

For Targ, and for the house as an entity, the result was a disaster. When the Times-Mirror Corporation, of Los Angeles, the successful bidder, took over in 1963, the corporation’s other New York subsidiary, New American Library, began to control World’s operations, particularly its trade department.