Beacon was created by Arnold E. Arahamson, publisher of Universal Publishing Company, which also issued such labels as Uni, Intimate, Royal Giant, Stallion and Fiesta, most of which were digest-sized books. The first Beacon title was She Got What She Wanted by Orrie Hitt in 1954, and within seven years it had become the largest publisher of mid-century erotica. Beacon changed its name to Softcover Library in the mid-1960s, keeping the lighthouse colophon, and operated from New York City until the early 1970s. In its first three years, Beacon published a title a month, but by 1961, the year Universal went public, they were publishing eight titles a month and had over 450 titles in print with combined book and magazine sales of over 13 million copies.