Weidenfeld and Nicolson was founded in 1949 by George Weidenfeld, who had previously published under the imprint Contact Books, and Nigel Nicolson. Weidenfeld was a proactive publisher who commissioned many of the firm's titles and who sought, by cooperative agreements, to arrange the simultaneous publication of Weidenfeld and Nicolson titles in many different countries. The company has always had an emphasis on history and biography, but has also published some notable fiction.
Weidenfeld and Nicolson purchased the firm J. M. Dent in 1988, also acquiring Everyman Paperbacks. It in turn was bought by the Orion Publishing Group in the early 1990s, then became part of Octopus Publishing Group, where it has continued as publisher of biography, autobiography and memoirs.
