A Brief Account of the Educational Publishing Business in the United States

by William Edmond Pulsifer

B. F. JOHNSON PUBLISHING COMPANY.

—This concern is the successor of B. F. Johnson & Company, which was organized some time in the 80’s to develop a subscription book business founded by Benjamin Franklin Johnson in 1876. The business grew to enormous proportions and at one time the books published by this concern were to be found in almost every house in the South.

In 1895, the Company began to experiment in a small way with schoolbooks, beginning with Lee’s Advanced History. Two years later it published Johnson’s Primer, and this was soon followed by Johnson’s Readers. The success of these experiments led to a reorganization of the Company by Mr. Johnson in 1900, when the subscription book business was dropped and the house began to devote itself exclusively to schoolbooks. The first publications of the reorganized company were Graded Classics Readers and Colaw and Ellwood’s Arithmetics in 1900, both of which series were remarkably successful.

In 1902, Mr. Johnson was succeeded in the presidency by James D. Crump, who held the position until 1920, when he was succeeded by A. J. Gray, Jr. The Company has recently been reorganized by Mr. Gray to meet the demands of its extraordinary growth and to provide for further development on an enlarged scale.

SILVER, BURDETT & COMPANY.

—This business was founded by Mr. Edgar O. Silver, April 21, 1885. On September 21, 1886, the firm of Silver, Rogers & Company was organized, M. Thacher Rogers being admitted to partnership. This partnership was succeeded by the partnership of Silver, Burdett & Company, April 16, 1888, consisting of Edgar O. Silver, Elmer E. Silver, Henry C. Deane, and Frank W. Burdett, and on May 2, 1892, the business of the partnership was assumed by the corporation of the same name. Mr. Edgar O. Silver died in November, 1909. In 1910, Arthur Lord was elected Acting President, and in 1914 Haviland Stevenson was made President of the Company.

The date of the first publications of this house was 1885. Among its earliest books were the Normal Music Course and other music books for schools, Farley and Gunnison’s Writing Books, Todd and Powell’s Readers, Stowell’s Physiologies, and Larkin Dunton’s Geographical Readers. For two or three years after its organization in 1885, the house devoted itself almost entirely to the publication of music books for the common and high schools. In 1890, the policy of the house was changed and the list broadened to cover the other subjects in the school curriculum.

Silver, Burdett & Company purchased the business of Potter & Putnam about 1903, and in 1904 that of the Morse Company, adding the lists of these houses to their own.

D. C. HEATH & COMPANY.

—This house was founded in 1886 by Daniel C. Heath, whose first office was in Tremont Place, Boston. The name chosen by Mr. Heath for his firm was D. C. Heath & Company, which name has continued until this day. Mr. Heath’s first partner was Charles H. Ames, who was admitted to the firm in 1888. His second was William E. Pulsifer, who joined the Company in 1889. Dr. Winfield S. Smyth, who had been Ginn & Company’s Chicago manager, was taken into the firm of D. C. Heath & Company in 1893. In 1895, the partnership sold its business to a corporation organized in that month, of which Mr. D. C. Heath was made President, Dr. Winfield S. Smyth, Vice President, William E. Pulsifer, Treasurer, and Charles H. Ames, Secretary. Mr. Heath died in January, 1908, and Dr. Smyth in August, 1908.

After Mr. Heath’s death his trustees, Herbert C. Foss and E. G. Cooley, who for some time had been Superintendent of Schools in Chicago, carried on the business for two years, when Mr. Heath’s stock was purchased by William E. Pulsifer, Winfield S. Smyth, Jr., W. H. Ives, James C. Simpson, Isaac Van Houten, Frank F. Hummel, and others who bought a few shares of the common stock. In 1910 the corporation elected as its officers, William E. Pulsifer, President, W. H. Ives, Vice President, Winfield S. Smyth, Treasurer, and Charles H. Ames, Secretary. Mr. Ives soon retired and in September, 1911, Mr. Ames died. The present officers of the Company are William E. Pulsifer, President, James C. Simpson, Vice President, Winfield S. Smyth, Treasurer, and Frank F. Hummel, Secretary. Mr. S. Willard Clary was the editor-in-chief of the Modern Language Department for twenty-seven years, and Dr. Charles Henry Douglas has been the editor-in-chief of the general list since 1895.

When Mr. Heath retired from the firm of Ginn & Heath, he was paid for his interest partly in cash and partly in books. Among the publications which he received from the Ginn & Heath list were Remsen’s Organic Chemistry, Shaler’s First Book in Geology, Ybarra’s Practical Method in Spanish, Sheldon’s Short German Grammar, Hall’s Methods of Teaching History, and Mitchell’s Hebrew Lessons. There were altogether twenty-four bound books and several manuscripts, including those prepared by Mary Sheldon. Mr. Heath’s first publications were Sheldon’s Studies in General History, the Joynes-Meissner German Grammar, and several French and German texts purchased from English and Scotch publishers and republished by him.

D. C. Heath & Company has acquired by purchase from Leach & Shewell and added to its list the Wells Series of Mathematics for secondary schools and colleges, a number of Latin texts and textbooks from the University Publishing Company, Thomas’s History of the United States from a Friends’ Society known as The Text-Book Association of Philadelphia, Bancroft’s School Gymnastics from Kellogg & Company of New York, Bowser’s Algebras, Geometries, and Trigonometries from Van Nostrand & Company, and the American rights in what is now known as the Arden Shakespeare from Blackie & Son, Limited, of Scotland.

LONGMANS, GREEN & COMPANY.

—The American house of Longmans, Green & Company was founded September 15, 1887, by Mr. C. J. Mills. Its business is incorporated under New York State law. The London house began business in 1724. The only change that has been made in the personnel of the Company on this side of the Atlantic was the admittance to the firm of Mr. Mill’s son, E. S. Mills.

The publication of schoolbooks by the American house was begun in 1890. The first of these books were Epochs of American History, a series of three volumes edited by Professor A. B. Hart of Harvard. Woodrow Wilson is the author of one of the volumes. This well-known series was quickly followed by Longmans’ English Classics, Longmans’ English Grammar, etc.

SCOTT, FORESMAN & COMPANY.

—This house was founded in 1889 under the firm name of Albert & Scott. The business was originated and carried on for several years by Mr. E. H. Scott. In 1894, Mr. H. A. Foresman purchased an interest in the concern and shortly afterward the publishing business of George Sherwood & Company, with all its stock and publishing rights, was taken over. At that time the corporation name was changed to Scott, Foresman & Company. In 1896, W. C. Foresman bought an interest in the business and became Treasurer of the Company. The same year the publishing business of S. C. Griggs & Company was purchased, and all rights and stock were transferred to Scott, Foresman & Company. In 1908, R. C. McNamara became a stockholder and Secretary of the Company. In 1912, Charles E. Keck became a stockholder and manager of the Eastern office.

Scott, Foresman & Company began publishing educational books in 1889, the first being a beginner’s Latin book, Bellum Helveticum, and the second, Lowe and Ewing’s Caesar.