Cliffs Notes was started by a Nebraska native named Cliff Hillegass in 1958. He was working at Nebraska Book Co. of Lincoln, Nebraska, when he met Jack Cole, the co-owner of Coles, a Toronto book business. Coles was also the publisher of a series of Canadian study guides called Coles Notes. Jack Cole offered the American rights to Hillegass.

Hillegass and his wife, Catherine, started the business in their basement at 511 Eastridge Drive, with sixteen William Shakespeare titles. Cliffs Notes now exist on hundreds of works. The term Cliffs Notes has now come into modern usage, as a noun for notes of a similar nature to the original Cliffs Notes books.

John Wiley & Sons, a publisher of scientific and technical publications, bought Cliffs Notes in 2001 from IDG Books.

Other guides

In addition to guides for literature, the company produces several other series of guides, including:

• CliffsQuickReview - a quick reference for information on many scholastic subjects, such as sciences, mathematics, and history.

See also

• SparkNotes
• York Notes

External links

• CliffsNotes website