already publishing a guide that was not selling well, and Shimkin called tax expert J.K. Lasser and asked him to write the third edition of Your Income Tax. He told Lasser to "keep the guide simple and readable. Write short sentences and use one-syllable words whenever possible." At its height, the book sold a million copies a year. Simon & Schuster offered Shimkin a $25,000 bonus for finding the book How to Win Friends, but Shimkin turned it down and asked for a third of the company instead. He became a partner with Simon & Schuster and remained an executive after it was sold to Field Enterprises, Inc. in 1944. Shimkin co-founded Pocket Books the mass market paperback division with Robert D. de Graff and the other partners of Simon & Schuster kicking off a whole new industry. Shimkin determined the distribution for the new line of paperbacks—instead of distributing through the book channels it was distributed through magazine channels. This meant that paperbacks could be treated like a magazine and sold in newsstands, drugstores, candy stores, bus and railway stations and therefore reach new audiences. In 1947, Shimkin developed and taught a course on book publishing for New York University's Division of General Education. In 1950 Shimkin was named president of Pocket Books. In 1957 Shimkin along with M. Lincoln Shuster repurchased the company from Field and Shimkin bought Pocket Books on his own. In 1966 he purchased Simon & Schuster from Schuster for $2 Million. In 1948, Shimkin became business manager for the short-lived New York Star. In 1961, Shimkin, along with Herbert Alexander, established Trident Press in order to publish hardcover titles for Harold Robbins. According to Michael Korda, this changed the publishing industry as paperback publishers realized they "didn't have to pay second fiddle to the hardcover publishers or bid themselves silly over the rights to "major" fiction from them." It also allowed Shimkin more control and leverage to eventually own all of Simon & Schuster. Leon Shimkin later sold Simon & Schuster to Gulf+ Western in 1975 but continued to go twice a week to an office he maintained at Simon & Schuster's headquarters on Avenue of Americas until shortly before his death at 81. Marriage and children Leon Shimkin was married to Rebecca Shimkin who died in 1997. The family had a home in Larchmont, New York, a home in Pound Ridge, and an