Het Spectrum is a Dutch publishing house.

It publishes books, under its own name and two other trade marks: Winkler Prins and Prisma. Since September 1999 Het Spectrum is a business unit within PCM Algemene Boeken

PCM Uitgevers

PCM Uitgevers was a Dutch publishing company. Until 2007 Apax Partners held a controlling stake in the company. In December 2009, it merged with De Persgroep to become De Persgroep Nederland...

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Het Spectrum was established in 1935 by book sellers P.H. Bogaard and A.H. Bloemsma. From its humble beginnings in a room above a bakery in de Biltstraat in Utrecht

Utrecht (city)

Utrecht city and municipality is the capital and most populous city of the Dutch province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, and is the fourth largest city of the Netherlands with a population of 312,634 on 1 Jan 2011.Utrecht's ancient city centre features...

 the publishing developed to become one of the largest in the Netherlands. At Het Spectrum work about 50 employees.

Het Spectrum started as a progressive

Progressivism

Progressivism is an umbrella term for a political ideology advocating or favoring social, political, and economic reform or changes. Progressivism is often viewed by some conservatives, constitutionalists, and libertarians to be in opposition to conservative or reactionary ideologies.The...

-Catholic

Catholicism

Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....

e publisher that aspired to supply good reading materials to the masses. Hence it published many pocket books. After World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 this formula continued as Prisma Pockets. Among the pocket books were translated classics for the modest price of 1,25 guilder

Guilder

Guilder is the English translation of the Dutch gulden — from Old Dutch for 'golden'. The guilder originated as a gold coin but has been a common name for a silver or base metal coin for some centuries...

. The Prisma dictionaries were also part of this line.

Dutch authors published through Het Spectrum include Godfried Bomans

Godfried Bomans

Godfried Bomans was a popular Dutch author and television personality and a prominent Dutch catholic...

, Han van Bree, Hubrecht Duijker, L. T. F. Gamut (a pseudonym of five authors together), Ben Tiggelaar, and Janwillem van de Wetering

Janwillem van de Wetering

Janwillem Lincoln van de Wetering was the author of a number of works in English and Dutch. He was particularly noted for his detective fiction, his most popular creations being Grijpstra and de Gier, a pair of Amsterdam police officers who figure in a lengthy series of novels and short stories...

. International authors include Dorothy Parker

Dorothy Parker

Dorothy Parker was an American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist, best known for her wit, wisecracks, and eye for 20th century urban foibles....

, Dr. Phil, Peter Singer

Peter Singer

Peter Albert David Singer is an Australian philosopher who is the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University and Laureate Professor at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics at the University of Melbourne...

, Edgar Wallace

Edgar Wallace

Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace was an English crime writer, journalist, novelist, screenwriter, and playwright, who wrote 175 novels, 24 plays, and numerous articles in newspapers and journals....

, and P. G. Wodehouse

P. G. Wodehouse

Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, KBE was an English humorist, whose body of work includes novels, short stories, plays, poems, song lyrics, and numerous pieces of journalism. He enjoyed enormous popular success during a career that lasted more than seventy years and his many writings continue to be...

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