The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction is a U. S. fantasy and science fiction magazine first published in 1949 by Fantasy House, a subsidiary of Lawrence Spivak's Mercury Press. Editors Anthony Boucher and J. Francis McComas had approached Spivak in the mid-1940s about creating a fantasy companion to Spivak's existing mystery title, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine; the first issue was titled The Magazine of Fantasy, but the decision was made to include science fiction as well as fantasy, the title was changed correspondingly with the second issue. F&SF was quite different in presentation from the existing science fiction magazines of the day, most of which were in pulp format: it had no interior illustrations, no letter column, text in a single column format, which in the opinion of science fiction historian Mike Ashley "set F&SF apart, giving it the air and authority of a superior magazine". F&SF became one of the leading magazines in the science fiction and fantasy field, with a reputation for publishing literary material and including more diverse stories than its competitors.
Well-known stories that appeared in its early years include Richard Matheson's Born of Man and Woman, Ward Moore's Bring the Jubilee, a novel of an alternative history in which the South has won the American Civil War. McComas left for health reasons in 1954, but Boucher continued as sole editor until 1958, winning the Hugo Award for Best Magazine that year, a feat his successor, Robert Mills, repeated in the next two years. Mills was responsible for publishing Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes, Rogue Moon by Algis Budrys, Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein, the first of Brian Aldiss's Hothouse stories; the first few issues featured cover art by George Salter, Mercury Press's art director, but other artists soon began to appear, including Chesley Bonestell, Kelly Freas, Ed Emshwiller. In 1962, Mills was succeeded as editor by Avram Davidson; when Davidson left at the end of 1964, Joseph Ferman, who had bought the magazine from Spivak in 1954, took over as editor, though his son Edward soon began doing the editorial work under his father's supervision.
At the start of 1966 Edward Ferman was listed as editor, four years he acquired the magazine from his father and moved the editorial offices to his house in Connecticut. Ferman remained editor for over 25 years, published many well-received stories, including Fritz Leiber's Ill Met in Lankhmar, Robert Silverberg's Born with the Dead, Stephen King's The Dark Tower series. In 1991 he turned the editorship over to Kristine Kathryn Rusch, who began including more horror and dark fantasy than had appeared under Ferman. In the mid-1990s circulation began to decline. Gordon Van Gelder replaced Rusch in 1997, bought the magazine from Ferman in 2001, but circulation continued to fall, by 2011 it was below 15,000. Charles Coleman Finlay took over from Van Gelder as editor in 2015; the first magazine dedicated to fantasy, Weird Tales, appeared in 1923. By the end of the 1930s, the genre was flourishing in the United States, nearly twenty new sf and fantasy titles appearing between 1938 and 1941; these were all pulp magazines, which meant that despite the occasional high-quality story, most of the magazines presented badly written fiction and were regarded as trash by many readers.
In 1941, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine appeared, edited by Fred Dannay and focusing on detective fiction. The magazine was published in digest format, rather than pulp, printed a mixture of classic stories and fresh material. Dannay attempted to avoid the sensationalist fiction appearing in the pulps, soon made the magazine a success. In the early 1940s Anthony Boucher, a successful writer of fantasy and sf and of mystery stories, got to know Dannay through his work on the Ellery Queen radio show. Boucher knew J. Francis McComas, an editor who shared his interest in fantasy and sf. By 1944 McComas and Boucher became interested in the idea of a fantasy companion to Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, spoke to Dannay about it. Dannay was interested in the idea, but paper was scarce because of World War II; the following year Boucher and McComas suggested that the new magazine could use the Ellery Queen name, but Dannay knew little about fantasy and suggested instead that they approach Lawrence Spivak, the owner of Mercury Press, which published Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine.
In January 1946, Boucher and McComas went to New York and met with Spivak, who let them know in the year that he wanted to go ahead. At Spivak's request they began acquiring material for the new magazine, including a new story by Raymond Chandler, reprint rights to stories by H. P. Lovecraft, John Dickson Carr, Robert Bloch. Spivak planned the first issue for early 1947, but delayed the launch because of poor newsstand sales of digest magazines, he suggested that it should be priced at 35 cents an issue, higher than the original plan, to provide a financial buffer against poor sales. In May 1949 Spivak suggested a new title, The Magazine of Fantasy, in August a press release announced that the magazine would appear in October. On October 6, 1949, Boucher and McComas held a luncheon at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the death of Edgar Allan Poe and to launch "a new fantasy anthology periodical". Invitees included Carr, Basil Rathbone, Boris Karloff.
The first issue, published by Fantasy House, a subsidiary of American Mercury, sold 57,000 co
Irony
Irony, in its broadest sense, is a rhetorical device, literary technique, or event in which what appears, on the surface, to be the case, differs radically from what is the case. Irony can be categorized into different types, including: verbal irony, dramatic irony, situational irony. Verbal and situational irony are used for emphasis in the assertion of a truth; the ironic form of simile, used in sarcasm, some forms of litotes can emphasize one's meaning by the deliberate use of language which states the opposite of the truth, denies the contrary of the truth, or drastically and understates a factual connection. Other forms, as identified by historian Connop Thirlwall, include practical irony. Henry Watson Fowler, in The King's English, says, "any definition of irony—though hundreds might be given, few of them would be accepted—must include this, that the surface meaning and the underlying meaning of what is said are not the same." Eric Partridge, in Usage and Abusage, writes that "Irony consists in stating the contrary of what is meant."
The use of irony may require the concept of a double audience. Fowler's A Dictionary of Modern English Usage says: Irony is a form of utterance that postulates a double audience, consisting of one party that hearing shall hear & shall not understand, & another party that, when more is meant than meets the ear, is aware both of that more & of the outsiders' incomprehension; the term is sometimes used as a synonym for incongruous and applied to "every trivial oddity" in situations where there is no double audience. An example of such usage is: Sullivan, whose real interest was serious music, which he composed with varying degrees of success, achieved fame for his comic opera scores rather than for his more earnest efforts; the American Heritage Dictionary's secondary meaning for irony: "incongruity between what might be expected and what occurs". This sense, however, is not synonymous with "incongruous" but a definition of dramatic or situational irony, it is included in definitions of irony not only that incongruity is present but that the incongruity must reveal some aspect of human vanity or folly.
Thus the majority of American Heritage Dictionary's usage panel found it unacceptable to use the word ironic to describe mere unfortunate coincidences or surprising disappointments that "suggest no particular lessons about human vanity or folly."On this aspect, The Oxford English Dictionary has also: A condition of affairs or events of a character opposite to what was, or might be, expected. According to Encyclopædia Britannica:The term irony has its roots in the Greek comic character Eiron, a clever underdog who by his wit triumphs over the boastful character Alazon; the Socratic irony of the Platonic dialogues derives from this comic origin. According to Richard Whately: Aristotle mentions Eironeia, which in his time was employed to signify, not according to the modern use of'Irony, saying the contrary to what is meant', what writers express by Litotes, i.e.'saying less than is meant'. The word came into English as a figure of speech in the 16th century as similar to the French ironie, it derives from the Latin ironia and from the Greek εἰρωνεία eirōneía, meaning dissimulation, ignorance purposely affected.
The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics distinguishes between the following types of irony: Classical irony: Referring to the origins of irony in Ancient Greek comedy, the way classical and medieval rhetoricians delineated the term. Romantic irony: A self-aware and self-critical form of fiction. Cosmic irony: A contrast between the absolute and the relative, the general and the individual, which Hegel expressed by the phrase, "general of the world." Verbal irony: A contradiction between a statement's stated and intended meaning Situational irony: The disparity of intention and result. Dramatic irony and tragic irony: A disparity of awareness between an actor and an observer: when words and actions possess significance that the listener or audience understands, but the speaker or character does not, it is most used when the author causes a character to speak or act erroneously, out of ignorance of some portion of the truth of which the audience is aware. In tragic irony, the audience knows the character is making a mistake as the character is making it.
According to A glossary of literary terms by Abrams and Hartman,Verbal irony is a statement in which the meaning that a speaker employs is different from the meaning, ostensibly expressed. An ironic statement involves the explicit expression of one attitude or evaluation, but with indications in the overall speech-situation that the speaker intends a different, opposite, attitude or evaluation. Verbal irony is distinguished from situational irony and dramatic irony in that it is produced intentionally by speakers. For instance, if a man exclaims, "I'm not upset!" but reveals an upset emotional state through his voice while trying to claim he's not upset, it would not be verbal irony by virtue of its verbal manifestation. But if the same speaker said the same words and intended to communicate that he was upset by claiming he was not, the utterance would be verbal irony. Thi
Cities in Flight
Cities in Flight is a four-volume series of science fiction stories by American writer James Blish published between 1950 and 1962, which were first known collectively as the "Okie" novels. The series features entire cities that are able to fly through space using an anti-gravity device, the spindizzy; the stories cover two thousand years, from the near future to the end of the universe. One story, "Earthman, Come Home" won a Retro Hugo Award in 2004 for Best Novelette. Since 1970, the primary edition has been the omnibus volume first published in paperback by Avon Books. Over the years James Blish made many changes to these stories in response to points raised in letters from readers, they Shall Have Stars, incorporating the stories "Bridge" and "At Death's End", is set in the near future. In this future, the Soviet Union still exists and the Cold War is still ongoing; as a result, Western civil liberties have been eroded more and more, until society resembles the Soviet model. Alaska's Senator Bliss Wagoner, head of the Joint Congressional Committee on Space Flight, is determined to do something about it.
Scientific research has stagnated because knowledge has become restricted. On the advice of scientist Dr. Corsi, Wagoner concentrates his attention on fringe science theories. One project he has funded is the building of a "bridge" made of Ice IV on the surface of Jupiter; this leads to one of two major discoveries which make interstellar space travel feasible: gravity manipulation, which leads to both a faster-than-light travel and effective shielding. Another project yields an "anti-agathic" drug. Wagoner is convicted of treason by an oppressive regime, but not before he has sent out expeditions. Politically, the book expresses a strong opposition to McCarthyism, at its peak during the time of writing; the main antagonist is Francis X. MacHinery, hereditary Director of the FBI, which has become a de facto secret police agency. In the final chapter he is heard to say "Bliss Wagoner is dead", with the narrative noting that "as usual, he was wrong", as his legacy will endure. Reviewing a edition, the Hartford Courant described the novel as "a skillful mixture of human reality and technological fantasy".
In the period in between the first and second parts, the Cold War ended with the peaceful merging of the East and West blocks into a single, planet-wide Soviet-ruled dictatorship, which hardly made any perceptible change, as the West's political system had become identical with the Soviet one. However, this dictatorial power was broken by the spindizzy drive which works for large objects, so that dissidents and malcontents have an easy way of escaping and going off into space. First factories eventually whole cities migrate from the economically depressed Earth in search of work. A Life for the Stars is a bildungsroman describing the adventures of sixteen-year-old Chris deFord, born when the above process of migration had been going on for a considerable time; when Chris goes to watch the imminent departure of Scranton, Pennsylvania, he sneaks into the city just before it leaves Earth. After several adventures, Chris is fortunate to be transferred to the much more prosperous New York, a major "Okie" city under Mayor John Amalfi.
Scranton is run by the city manager rather than its figurehead mayor. When the two cities meet again and come into conflict over Scranton's bungling of a job, Chris is able to convince an influential friend in his old city to depose the city manager and end the conflict. Impressed, Amalfi elevates him to the newly created position of city manager of New York and gives him the status of resident rather than passenger. Earthman, Come Home, combining the stories "Okie", "Bindlestiff", "Sargasso of Lost Cities" and "Earthman, Come Home", is the longest book in the series, it describes the many adventures of New York under Amalfi, amongst a galaxy which has planets settled at different periods of history under loose control by Earth. After an economic collapse causes a galactic depression, New York ends up in a "Jungle", where Okie cities orbit a dying red giant star while waiting for work. Amalfi realises that the "Vegan Orbital Fort", a semi-mythical remnant of the dominant alien civilisation, is hiding among the Okies.
His plan to stop the Vegans involves forcing the Okies to "march" on Earth, attracting the Vegan fort to join in the "march", culminates in installating a spindizzy drive system on a small planet and using it to lead the march. Amalfi takes advantage of the vastly higher speed and size of the flying planet to destroy the fort flies New York away before the Earth Police can catch them. New York is installed on a spindizzy-equipped planet called He, projected out of the Milky Way galaxy, towards the Greater Magellanic Cloud. With some of New York's spindizzies irreparably damaged, Amalfi convinces the New Yorkers that they must find a planet to call home. On their chosen planet, New York encounters the Interstellar Master Traders, a rogue city whose sacking of the planet Thor 5 damaged the reputation of Okies in general, who have enslaved the local human population. In typical fashion, Amalfi swindles the IMT residents and sets their spindizzy enginers to fly the city off the planet, where they are destroyed by an Earth Police ship.
Although Blish defines how much time passes during each adventure, a late ch
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper, published in Los Angeles, since 1881. It has the fourth-largest circulation among United States newspapers, is the largest U. S. newspaper not headquartered on the East Coast. The paper is known for its coverage of issues salient to the U. S. West Coast, such as immigration trends and natural disasters, it has won more than 40 Pulitzer Prizes for its coverage of other issues. As of June 18, 2018, ownership of the paper is controlled by Patrick Soon-Shiong, the executive editor is Norman Pearlstine. In the nineteenth century, the paper was known for its civic boosterism and opposition to unions, the latter of which led to the bombing of its headquarters in 1910; the paper's profile grew in the 1960s under publisher Otis Chandler, who adopted a more national focus. In recent decades, the paper's readership has declined and it has been beset by a series of ownership changes, staff reductions, other controversies. In January 2018, the paper's staff voted to unionize, in July 2018 the paper moved out of its historic downtown headquarters to a facility near Los Angeles International Airport.
The Times was first published on December 4, 1881, as the Los Angeles Daily Times under the direction of Nathan Cole Jr. and Thomas Gardiner. It was first printed at the Mirror printing plant, owned by Jesse Yarnell and T. J. Caystile. Unable to pay the printing bill and Gardiner turned the paper over to the Mirror Company. In the meantime, S. J. Mathes had joined the firm, it was at his insistence that the Times continued publication. In July 1882, Harrison Gray Otis moved from Santa Barbara to become the paper's editor. Otis made the Times a financial success. Historian Kevin Starr wrote that Otis was a businessman "capable of manipulating the entire apparatus of politics and public opinion for his own enrichment". Otis's editorial policy was based on civic boosterism, extolling the virtues of Los Angeles and promoting its growth. Toward those ends, the paper supported efforts to expand the city's water supply by acquiring the rights to the water supply of the distant Owens Valley; the efforts of the Times to fight local unions led to the October 1, 1910 bombing of its headquarters, killing twenty-one people.
Two union leaders and Joseph McNamara, were charged. The American Federation of Labor hired noted trial attorney Clarence Darrow to represent the brothers, who pleaded guilty. Otis fastened a bronze eagle on top of a high frieze of the new Times headquarters building designed by Gordon Kaufmann, proclaiming anew the credo written by his wife, Eliza: "Stand Fast, Stand Firm, Stand Sure, Stand True." Upon Otis's death in 1917, his son-in-law, Harry Chandler, took control as publisher of the Times. Harry Chandler was succeeded in 1944 by his son, Norman Chandler, who ran the paper during the rapid growth of post-war Los Angeles. Norman's wife, Dorothy Buffum Chandler, became active in civic affairs and led the effort to build the Los Angeles Music Center, whose main concert hall was named the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in her honor. Family members are buried at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery near Paramount Studios; the site includes a memorial to the Times Building bombing victims. The fourth generation of family publishers, Otis Chandler, held that position from 1960 to 1980.
Otis Chandler sought legitimacy and recognition for his family's paper forgotten in the power centers of the Northeastern United States due to its geographic and cultural distance. He sought to remake the paper in the model of the nation's most respected newspapers, notably The New York Times and The Washington Post. Believing that the newsroom was "the heartbeat of the business", Otis Chandler increased the size and pay of the reporting staff and expanded its national and international reporting. In 1962, the paper joined with The Washington Post to form the Los Angeles Times–Washington Post News Service to syndicate articles from both papers for other news organizations, he toned down the unyielding conservatism that had characterized the paper over the years, adopting a much more centrist editorial stance. During the 1960s, the paper won four Pulitzer Prizes, more than its previous nine decades combined. Writing in 2013 about the pattern of newspaper ownership by founding families, Times reporter Michael Hiltzik said that: The first generations bought or founded their local paper for profits and social and political influence.
Their children enjoyed both profits and influence, but as the families grew larger, the generations found that only one or two branches got the power, everyone else got a share of the money. The coupon-clipping branches realized that they could make more money investing in something other than newspapers. Under their pressure the companies split apart, or disappeared. That's the pattern followed over more than a century by the Los Angeles Times under the Chandler family; the paper's early history and subsequent transformation was chronicled in an unauthorized history Thinking Big, was one of four organizations profiled by David Halberstam in The Powers That Be. It has been the whole or partial subject of nearly thirty dissertations in communications or social science in the past four decades; the Los Angeles Times began a decline with Los Angeles itself with the decline in military production at the end of the Cold War. It faced hiring freezes in 1991-1992. Another major decision at the same time was to cut the range of circulation.
They cut circulation in California's Central Valley, Nevada and the San Diego ed
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is a fantasy novel for children by C. S. Lewis, published by Geoffrey Bles in 1950, it is the first best known of seven novels in The Chronicles of Narnia. Among all the author's books, it is the most held in libraries. Although it was the first of The Chronicles of Narnia, it is volume two in recent editions that are sequenced by the stories' chronology. Like the other Chronicles, it was illustrated by Pauline Baynes, her work has been retained in many editions. Most of the novel is set in Narnia, a land of talking animals and mythical creatures, ruled by the evil White Witch. In the frame story, four English children are relocated to a large, old country house following a wartime evacuation; the youngest, visits Narnia three times via the magic of a wardrobe in a spare room. Lucy's three siblings are with her on her third visit to Narnia. In Narnia, the siblings seem fit to fulfill an old prophecy and find themselves adventuring to save Narnia and their own lives.
The lion Aslan gives his life to save one of the children. Lewis wrote the book for Lucy Barfield, she was the daughter of Owen Barfield, Lewis's friend, teacher and trustee. Peter, Susan and Lucy Pevensie are evacuated from London during the Blitz and sent to live with an old professor in the English countryside. While exploring the professor's house, Lucy enters a magic wardrobe that leads her into a wooded area with a lighted lamppost growing from the ground. Lucy meets a faun who befriends her and informs her that she is in the land of Narnia. Tumnus intends to send Lucy to the White Witch, a ruler who keeps Narnia frozen in a perpetual winter and who requires that any human found in Narnia be sent to her. Tumnus repents and escorts Lucy back to the lamppost. None of her siblings believe her story about Narnia. Lucy enters the wardrobe again, it leads her into Narnia. Edmund follows Lucy. Upon entering Narnia, Edmund encounters the White Witch; when the Witch learns that Edmund is human and has siblings, she plies him with sweet Turkish Delight.
The Witch promises to reward Edmund with more Turkish Delight if he brings his brother and sisters to her castle. Upon returning to his own world, Edmund denies. Soon afterwards, all four children enter Narnia together. Lucy leads the group to Tumnus's home, but finds that it has been ransacked and that the faun has been arrested; the children are befriended by a talking animal who takes them to his home. He informs the Pevensies that because of the Witch, it is always winter and never Christmas in Narnia, he and his wife tell the children about a prophecy that the Witch's tyranny will end when "two Sons of Adam and two Daughters of Eve" sit on the four thrones of Cair Paravel, that Narnia's true ruler – the great lion Aslan – is returning from a long absence. Edmund slips away to the Witch's castle. In the courtyard, he is surprised by the many statues of Narnians; the Witch greets him coldly, as he has come alone and with news that Aslan – her enemy – is returning. She leaves the castle to find and capture the other Pevensie children.
Meanwhile, the Beavers – surmising that Edmund has betrayed them – take the other children to meet Aslan at the Stone Table. As they travel, they find, they are greeted by Father Christmas, kept out of Narnia by the Witch's magic. The group arrive at their destination as winter are greeted by Aslan; the Witch's enforcer is killed by Peter. Aslan sends a rescue party for Edmund; the Witch parleys with Aslan, invoking the "Deep Magic" which gives her the right to kill Edmund for his treason. Aslan secretly trades his life for Edmund's; that evening and Lucy accompany Aslan to the Stone Table. They watch from a distance. After the Witch and her followers depart to prepare for battle against Aslan's followers and Lucy remain with Aslan's body. In the morning, the girls find Aslan restored to life. Aslan explains that the "Deeper Magic" has the power to reverse death if a willing victim takes the place of a traitor. Aslan takes the two girls to the Witch's castle and revives the Narnians that the Witch had turned to stone.
They join the Narnian forces battling the Witch's army. The Narnian army prevails, Aslan kills the Witch; the Pevensie children are crowned kings and queens of Narnia at Cair Paravel. After a long and happy reign, the Pevensies return to England during a hunt when they unintentionally pass the lamp-post and return through the wardrobe; the Pevensie Siblings. Lucy is the youngest and, in some respects, the primary protagonist of the story, she is the first to discover the land of Narnia when she finds her way through the magical wardrobe in the Professor's house. When Lucy tells her three siblings, they don't believe her: Peter and Susan think she is just playing a game w
Macmillan Publishers
Macmillan Publishers Ltd is an international publishing company owned by Holtzbrinck Publishing Group. It operates in more than thirty others. Macmillan was founded in 1843 by Daniel and Alexander Macmillan, two brothers from the Isle of Arran, Scotland. Daniel was the business brain, while Alexander laid the literary foundations, publishing such notable authors as Charles Kingsley, Thomas Hughes, Francis Turner Palgrave, Christina Rossetti, Matthew Arnold and Lewis Carroll. Alfred Tennyson joined the list in 1884, Thomas Hardy in 1886 and Rudyard Kipling in 1890. Other major writers published by Macmillan included W. B. Yeats, Rabindranath Tagore, Nirad C. Chaudhuri, Seán O'Casey, John Maynard Keynes, Charles Morgan, Hugh Walpole, Margaret Mitchell, C. P. Snow, Rumer Godden and Ram Sharan Sharma. Beyond literature, the company created such enduring titles as Nature, the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians and Sir Robert Harry Inglis Palgrave's Dictionary of Political Economy. George Edward Brett opened the first Macmillan office in the United States in 1869 and Macmillan sold its U.
S. operations to the Brett family, George Platt Brett, Sr. and George Platt Brett, Jr. in 1896, resulting in the creation of an American company, Macmillan Publishing called the Macmillan Company. With the split of the American company from its parent company in England, George Brett, Jr. and Harold Macmillan remained close personal friends. Macmillan Publishers re-entered the American market in 1954 under the name St. Martin's Press. Macmillan of Canada was founded in 1905. After retiring from politics in 1964, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Harold Macmillan became chairman of the company, serving until his death in December 1986, he had been with the family firm as a junior partner from 1920 to 1940, from 1945 to 1951 while he was in the opposition in Parliament. Holtzbrinck Publishing Group purchased the company in 1999. Pearson acquired the Macmillan name in America in 1998, following its purchase of the Simon & Schuster educational and professional group. Holtzbrinck purchased it from them in 2001.
McGraw-Hill continues to market its pre-kindergarten through elementary school titles under its Macmillan/McGraw-Hill brand. The US operations of Holtzbrinck Publishing changed its name to Macmillan in October 2017, its audio publishing imprint changed its name from Audio Renaissance to Macmillan Audio, while its distribution arm was renamed from Von Holtzbrinck Publishers Services to Macmillan Publishers Services. With Pan Macmillan's purchase of Kingfisher, a British children's publisher, Roaring Brook Press publisher Simon Boughton would take oversee Kingfisher's US business in October 2007. By some estimates, as of 2009 e-books account for three to five per cent of total book sales, are the fastest growing segment of the market. According to The New York Times and other major publishers "fear that massive discounting by retailers including Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Sony could devalue what consumers are willing to pay for books." In response, the publisher introduced a new boilerplate contract for its authors that established a royalty of 20 per cent of net proceeds on e-book sales, a rate five per cent lower than most other major publishers.
Following the announcement of the Apple iPad on 27 January 2010—a product that comes with access to the iBookstore—Macmillan gave Amazon.com two options: continue to sell e-books based on a price of the retailer's choice, with the e-book edition released several months after the hardcover edition is released, or switch to the agency model introduced to the industry by Apple, in which both are released and the price is set by the publisher. In the latter case, Amazon.com would receive a 30 per cent commission. Amazon responded by pulling all Macmillan books, both physical, from their website. On 31 January 2010, Amazon chose the agency model preferred by Macmillan. In April 2012, the United States Department of Justice filed United States v. Apple Inc. naming Apple and four other major publishers as defendants. The suit alleged that they conspired to fix prices for e-books, weaken Amazon.com's position in the market, in violation of antitrust law. In December 2013, a federal judge approved a settlement of the antitrust claims, in which Macmillan and the other publishers paid into a fund that provided credits to customers who had overpaid for books due to the price-fixing.
In 2010, Macmillan Education submitted to an investigation on grounds of fraudulent practices. The Macmillan division admitted to bribery in an attempt to secure a contract for an education project in southern Sudan; as a direct result of the investigation, sanctions were applied by the World Bank Group, namely a 6-year debarment declaring the company ineligible to be awarded Bank-financed contracts. In December 2011, Bedford and Worth Publishing Group, Macmillan's higher education group, changed its name to Macmillan Higher Education while retaining the Bedford and Worth name for its k–12 educational unit; that month, Brian Napack resigned as Macmillan president while staying on for transitional purposes. In May 2015, London-based Macmillan Science and Education merged with Berlin-based Springer Science+Business Media to form Springer Nature, jointly controlled by Holtzbrinck Publishing Group and BC Partners. US publishing divis
