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Thomas Nelson is a publishing firm that began in Scotland in 1798 as the namesake of its founder. Its former United States division is currently the sixth largest American trade publisher and the world's largest Christian publisher. It is owned by the private equity firm Kohlberg & Company. In 2011 both News Corporation ^[1] and HarperCollins ^[2] announced they had acquired Thomas Nelson, as of May 2012 it is still independently owned.

Their most successful title to date is Heaven Is for Real, which became their first title to sell more than one million ebooks.^[3]

In Canada, the Nelson imprint is used for educational publishing by Cengage Learning. In the United Kingdom, it was a mainstream publisher until the late 20th Century and is now part of another educational imprint, Nelson Thornes.

British history[link]

Thomas Nelson founded the company that bears his name in Edinburgh in 1798, originally as a second-hand religious bookshop but soon diversifying into publishing reprints of Puritan writers. The firm went on to become a publisher of new books, and as the nineteenth century progressed it produced an increasingly wide range of non-religious materials; by 1881 religion accounted for less than 6% of the firm's output.

By the early twentieth century, Thomas Nelson had become a secular concern in the United Kingdom. Until 1968, according to the curators of a Senate House Library exhibition, it "specialised in producing popular literature, children's books, Bibles, religious works and educational texts." ^[4] It was the first publisher for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Thomson owned the company from 1960 until 2000. That year it was acquired by Wolters Kluwer, who merged Nelson with its existing publishing arm, Stanley Thornes, to form Nelson Thornes.

Original American history[link]

The American branch of Thomas Nelson was set up in 1854 in New York, and by the 1870s it was one of the city's most important firms. It held the copyright for the American Standard Version of the Bible from 1901 until 1928, when it transferred the copyright to the International Council of Religious Education. In the 1930s, the company made a deal with this Council (which later became part of the National Council of Churches) to publish the Revised Standard Version. Following an ownership change in 1960, which the firm was sold to The Thomson Organization, changes happened, and in 1962 the company's failure to meet demand for this Bible translation led to the National Council of Churches granting other publishers licenses for the work, leading to a dramatic fall in revenue.

Current United States company[link]

In 1950, 19-year old Sam Moore came to Columbia, South Carolina, with an intent to pursue medical training. To pay his way through college at the University of South Carolina, and later Columbia Bible College, Moore began to sell Bibles door-to-door. The Lebanese immigrant had a strong sense of American patriotism and free enterprise and used it to establish the National Book Company in 1958, and in 1961, established Royal Publishers, and sold stock in the firm a year later, with notable shareholders including Morrow Coffey Graham, mother of noted evangelist Billy Graham.

Royal Publishers' success for five years, more than doubling sales every year, and resulted in the Thomson Organization asking if he would take control of Nelson's North American operations. Instead, Moore surprised the firm by offering to purchase the company, and Moore took over on March 7, 1969, preferring to keep the company's name and logo. In Canada, the brand continues as Thomson Nelson, an educational imprint. In the 1960s, Thomas Nelson moved its headquarters from New York to Camden, New Jersey. It moved again to Nashville, Tennessee in the 1970s. From 1979 to 1982, Nelson developed the New King James Bible (also known as the Revised Authorized Version) and under Moore began diversifying the company with a gift division.

In 1992, Thomas Nelson Inc. began its modern advancement. Nelson purchased the Word music and books brand from Capital Cities-ABC. In 1997, the company split the two, spinning off the record label and printed music division, one of the largest church music companies, to Gaylord Entertainment. That led to a lawsuit by Gaylord in 2001 over the Word name, and was settled when Nelson renamed their book division the W Publishing Group. That year also led to a corporate expansion by the purchase of the Cool Springs and Rutledge Hill Press labels.

In 2003, World Bible Publishers was acquired by Nelson, and also the fiction label WestBow Press made its debut (all books were later consolidated under the Nelson brand and WestBow Press was resurrected in 2009 to offer self-publishing services to aspiring authors). Also, an imprint for internet news source WorldNetDaily made its debut that year. The agreement dissolved, however, after 2004, and the former WND brand is now under the Nelson Current brand, including its authors.

Thomas Nelson, now based in Nashville, publishes leading Christian authors, including Billy Graham, Max Lucado, John Eldredge, John Maxwell, Charles Stanley, Michael A. O'Donnell, Ted Dekker, John Townsend, and Dave Stone. Thomas Nelson Inc. in 2000 began marketing the Women of Faith conference, a concept devised by author Stephen Arterburn in 1995, after attending a church conference in Atlanta. Today, the Women of Faith conference is one of the best-known women's events around North America, attracting over 400,000 women annually. In 2005, Thomas Nelson launched the Revolve teen conferences, built on the Women of Faith model. Michael S. Hyatt, a twenty-five year veteran of the publishing industry, became President and CEO of the company on August 18, 2005, succeeding Sam Moore who served as the company's CEO for nearly 47 years.

In February 2006 it was announced that private equity firm InterMedia Partners, in conjunction with some other investors, had agreed to buy Thomas Nelson for $473 million. The transaction closed on June 12, 2006. The company now operates as a private company. In 2010, a group led by Kohlberg & Company bought a majority share of the company.

Canadian history[link]

When Thomson sold Thomas Nelson UK, it kept the Canadian operations of the publisher as part of the company's education division. Thomson Education was spun off as Cengage Learning in the United States and Canada in 2007. The Nelson name lives on through the Canadian company Nelson Education Ltd., an educational publisher.

See also[link]

• The Lost Squire of Inglewood

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Cumberland snaps up conservative-leaning series from Nelson in The Tennessean, 2004-10-19
• Private equity firm buying Thomas Nelson in Nashville Business Journal, 2006-02-21
• Dempster, John A. H., "Thomas Nelson and Sons in the Late Nineteenth Century: A Study in Motivation, Part One", in Publishing History, 13, 1983, pp. 41–87; "Part Two" in Publishing History, 14, 1983, pp. 5–63.
• Moore, Sam, American By Choice: The Remarkable Fulfilment of an Immigrant’s Dreams, Nashville: Nelson, 1998.
• Tebbel, John, A History of Book Publishing in the United States, New York and London: Bowker, four volumes, 1972–1981.

External links[link]

• www.thomasnelson.com — Thomas Nelson (USA)
• www.westbowpress.com — WestBow Press (self-publishing services)
• www.michaelhyatt.com — Michael Hyatt's Blog
• www.nelson.com — Nelson Education (Canada)
• www.nelsonthornes.com — Nelson Thornes (UK)

Thomas or Tommy Nelson may refer to:

American public officials[link]

• Thomas Nelson, Jr. (1738–1789), American Revolutionary War leader; signer of Declaration of Independence; governor of Virginia (1781)

• Thomas Nelson Community College, American two-year college in southeastern Virginia; named after the above
• Thomas Nelson High School, a high school in Bardstown, Kentucky scheduled to open in 2012; also named after the above

• Thomas M. Nelson (1782–1853), American politician; Democrat-Republican from Virginia; in U.S. Congress 1816–19 (18th district)
• Thomas Amos Rogers Nelson (1812–1873), American politician; Opposition/Democrat from Tennessee; in U.S. Congress 1859–61
• Thomas Nelson (Oregon judge) (1819–1907), American jurist who served as Chief Justice of Oregon Supreme Court, 1850–1853
• Thomas G. Nelson (Idaho judge) (1936–2011), federal judge to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
• Thomas H. Nelson (1820–1896), American diplomat during and after the Civil War; envoy to Chile 1861–66; envoy to Mexico 1869–1873
• Thomas Leverett Nelson (1827–1897), American judge
• Tom Nelson (born 1976), American politician from Wisconsin

Others[link]

• Thomas "Scotch Tom" Nelson (1677–1747), Scottish immigrant and merchant to America in the Colony of Virginia
• Thomas Nelson, 2nd Earl Nelson (1786–1835), English nobleman who was a nephew of Admiral Horatio Nelson
• Thomas D. Nelson, Sr. (1895–2007), African-American shopkeeper (from Texas) who lived six months past his 111th birthday
• Tommy Nelson (1917–1973), American baseball infielder who briefly played in the major leagues (Boston Braves) during 1945
• Thomas Charles Nelson, Northern Irish politician, for Enniskillen
• Tom Nelson (American football) (born 1986), American football player of the Philadelphia Eagles
• Thomas Arthur Nelson, Scottish rugby player

See also[link]

• Thomas Nelson (publisher), international publishing firm founded in 1798 Edinburgh; set up in New York in 1854
• Thomas Nelson Page (1853–1922), American lawyer, novelist and historian who served as ambassador to Italy during World War I
• Nelson (surname)

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

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Michael Hyatt is an American film and television actress. Before Hyatt's work in film and television, she enjoyed memorable performances on stages throughout the country, particularly in Ragtime on Broadway.

Early life[link]

Born to Jamaican parents in the United Kingdom, Hyatt emigrated to the United States with her mother and two siblings when she was ten years old. Her mother Vera was an art historian and museologist and her father Charles an actor/broadcaster/comedian. Living in Maryland and then Washington, DC, Hyatt slowly adjusted to the American way of life. She was an undergraduate student of acting at Howard University and continued at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts for her Masters.

Career[link]

Hyatt had a recurring role on the first four seasons of the HBO series The Wire as Brianna Barksdale. She starred in Spike TV's The Kill Point as SWAT team commander Connie Reubens. She has guest starred on both Aaron Sorkin's The West Wing and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. She has also made brief appearances in ER, 24, Law & Order, Six Feet Under, The Big Bang Theory, Oz, Criminal Minds, Joan of Arcadia, Dexter and Glee.

External links[link]

• Michael Hyatt at the Internet Movie Database

This article about an American television actor or actress is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

For Real was an American R&B and soul quartet, that formed in 1993.^[1] In the latter part of that decade they were nominated for a Grammy, Billboard Music Award, and Soul Train Music Award.

Biography[link]

For Real secured their recording contract by accident. "We were picking up our manager from the airport. So we decided to greet him with an acappella song. Someone from A&M Records just happened to be in the airport and heard them perform. Not long after, they were signed," said Latanyia Baldwin.^[2]

The band released their debut album, It's a Natural Thang, with production from Brian McKnight on A&M Records in 1994, and it became a critical success, including a rare four stars from Rolling Stone magazine.^[3] Their first single, "You Don't Wanna Miss" hit #28 on the Billboard chart, courtesy of a danceable new jack swing remix by Steve "Silk" Hurley, which was featured in the song's video. A second single, "Easy to Love", peaked at #65 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The album scored another chart hit with the a cappella love song, "You Don't Know Nothin'", which was written and produced by Mervyn Warren, and which peaked at #27. The song peaked at #54 in the UK Singles Chart in July 1995.^[4] The album sold over one million copies worldwide, and peaked at #80 on the Billboard 200.

In 1995, the band appeared in Italian Vogue, modeling men's suits. They toured alongside Stevie Wonder,^[5] and lent their voices to the Martin Scorsese film project Grace of My Heart. The foursome also forayed into acting with appearances in the film Shake, Rattle and Rock! starring Renée Zellweger and Howie Mandel^[6] on Showtime.

They also hit the US Top 20 with the single "Freedom (Theme from Panther)" featuring Aaliyah, TLC, En Vogue, BlackGirl, SWV, and Vanessa Williams from the film Panther. They also recorded a duet with Stevie Wonder called "Stubborn Kind of Fellow", which appeared on the Marvin Gaye tribute album, Inner City Blues: The Music of Marvin Gaye.^[7] For Real also recorded songs for the soundtracks of the films Waiting to Exhale and Fled.

After a label change from A&M to Dallas Austin's Arista imprint Rowdy Records in 1996, For Real struck again with the Austin-produced, 60s-leaning single "Like I Do", from their second album Free. "Like I Do" hit #10 on the Billboard singles chart. The video also earned a Billboard nomination for Best R&B Clip; the album made the Top 100, and sold nearly 400,000 copies in the US. The album's next and last single was the Diane Warren-penned pop ballad "The Saddest Song I Ever Heard" which hit #65 on the Top 100 singles chart. The band performed "Saddest Song" on the TV series All That. Free included production from top R&B/pop producers like Babyface, Mario Winans, and Jon B..

The band also recorded three songs ("I Do", "Born to Love That Boy" and "Unwanted Number") and appeared in the critically acclaimed film Grace of My Heart. The film's soundstrack won a Satellite Award in 1997.^[9][10]

In January 1997, the band won an American Music Award for their work on the Waiting to Exhale soundtrack, in Summer 1997, the group earned a Soul Train Award nomination for Album of the Year (By a Group, Band or Duo) for Free.

In 1999, Wendi Williams lent her voice to the Emmy-winning film Introducing Dorothy Dandridge with Halle Berry, in which Berry plays a singer but Williams is behind her singing voice.^[11]

In 2002, their song "Love Will Be Waiting at Home" appeared in the film Two Can Play That Game, which starred Vivica A. Fox and Morris Chestnut.

In 2009, CoryLavel began to work with Josina Elder on her new album.

Discography[link]

• It's a Natural Thang (1994)
• Free (1996)

Awards and nominations[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• SingingFool.com Streaming music videos for "Like I Do" and "The Saddest Song I Ever Heard"
• Allmusic^{[dead link]} Discography, biographies, and pictures
• IUMA Group photos, lyrics, message board, audio streams, and biography
• Google Album info, photos, and lyrics