Samuel French established a publishing company in New York in 1846, and initially reprinted novels from popular periodicals. In the early 1850s French began publishing drama in series in small, paperbound volumes which included stage directions for amateur performers, so pioneering the concept of providing published scripts to theatrical producing groups. The company became the American representative, and later the owner, of Thomas Hailes Lacy, the leading British publisher of plays.
When his son Thomas Henry joined the firm in 1870 and took over the New York office, Samuel moved to London, where he began to collect royalties for performances of the company's plays. Samuel French died in 1898 and the New York and London branches of the company were sold separately and continued independently until 1975, when they were reunited.
Samuel French continued as the largest supplier of plays in the United States and Great Britain, and to publish plays, both produced and unproduced, into the twenty-first century. It also continued to buy acting-edition rights and to collect royalties on performances.
