In its early years Weidenfeld also published nonfiction works by Isaiah Berlin, Hugh Trevor-Roper, and Rose Macaulay, and novels by Mary McCarthy and Saul Bellow.

Later it published titles by world leaders and historians, along with contemporary fiction and glossy illustrated books.

[3][4] Weidenfeld & Nicolson acquired the publisher Arthur Baker Ltd in 1959, and ran it as an imprint into the 1990s.

[5] Weidenfeld was one of Orion's first acquisitions after the group's founding in 1991, and formed the core of its offerings.

At that time Weidenfeld imprints included Phoenix, its own much earlier establishment; and J. M. Dent, acquired in 1988 along with its Everyman series.