BENZIGER BROTHERS.
—This firm was founded in 1792 in Einsiedeln, Switzerland, by Joseph Charles Benziger. In 1883, he was succeeded by his sons, Charles and Nicholas Benziger.
In 1853, the New York house was founded. J. N. Adelrich Benziger, a son of Charles, and Louis, a son of Nicholas, took charge of the New York house. The American firm is now entirely independent of its parent house in Switzerland. In 1860 a branch house was opened in Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1880, Nicholas C. Benziger became a partner. His father, Nicholas, was a partner in Einsiedeln, and was the son of Nicholas mentioned above. In 1887, a branch house was opened in Chicago. In 1894, Louis G. Benziger, son of Louis, became a partner, retiring in 1914. In 1912 Xavier N. Benziger, and in 1919 Bernard A. Benziger, both sons of Nicholas C., became partners.
This firm has been publishing schoolbooks since 1860. From 1874 to 1877 the Gilmour Readers were published. The Catholic National Readers were brought out in the years 1889–1894. The New Century Catholic Readers were issued from 1903 to 1905. The house has also published a History of the United States in two volumes, an Elementary Geography, Advanced Geography, and two series of Arithmetics.
The present partners of the firm are Nicholas C. Benziger and his sons, Xavier N. and Bernard A. Benziger.
BENJ. H. SANBORN & CO.
—Mr. Young, the present President of this organization, writes:
“The records of the family tree of the Sanborn publications go back into the eighteenth century. The predecessors of the present concern appear to have been in the textbook business from the beginning, and to have specialized in English grammars. The earliest trace we have is of the publication of Staniford’s Short but Comprehensive Grammar Rendered Simple and Easy by Familiar Questions and Answers Adapted to the Capacity of Youth. This was printed by Mannering & Loring, of Boston, January, 1797. Later came The Elements of English Grammar by Adoniram Judson in 1808. Following Mannering & Loring came the firm of Loring & Edmunds. They were the publishers of Lindley Murray’s Grammar. Following Loring & Edmunds came Robert S. Davis, then Robert S. Davis & Company, then Leach, Shewell & Sanborn, and now Benj. H. Sanborn & Company.
“In addition to the Lindley Murray Grammar, one of the notable achievements of the predecessors of Benj. H. Sanborn & Company was the publication of the Greenleaf Arithmetics. The first contract for these books goes back to 1832. Greenleaf, by the way, a Maine teacher, sold the copyright of his first book for $10,000 in gold. This was more money than Greenleaf had ever seen before in his life, and he at once took the boat to Boston to deposit it.”
JOHN WILEY & SONS, INC.
—Charles Wiley established the business in 1807. John Wiley came into it as a clerk in 1820 and continued until 1890. He had associated with him at various times George Palmer Putnam, Mr. Long, and Robert Halsted. The concern became John Wiley & Sons in 1865. Major William H. Wiley entered it in 1875, and W. O. Wiley in 1890. The house was incorporated in 1904.
The first educational publication was a History of the United States, which was issued by the founder of the house just after the War of 1812, and contained an account of that war. The first technical book was published in 1819, entitled A View of the Lead Mines of Missouri, by Henry R. Schoolcraft.
HARPER & BROTHERS.
—This house was founded in 1817 by John Harper, Wesley Harper, James Harper, and Fletcher Harper. Harper & Brothers began to publish educational books in 1836, the title of their first publication being Professor Anthon’s Classical Series. Some of their most notable educational books are the Harper Geographies, Harper’s United States Series of Readers, Harper’s Arithmetics, Rolfe’s Shakespeare, Swinton’s Language Books, Green’s Short History of the English People, Harper’s Greek and Latin texts. In 1890 or thereabouts, the American Book Company bought the educational list of Harper & Brothers.
James Harper, the oldest brother of the original four Harpers, was elected Mayor of New York City in 1844. He originated the idea of the magazine, and Fletcher, who was an unusually fine business man, the idea of Harper’s Weekly.
D. APPLETON & COMPANY.
—Mr. Daniel Appleton, who was a dry goods merchant in Boston, moved and established himself in business in New York in 1825. He began the bookselling business at 16 Exchange Place by the importation of editions of English books. The bookselling business was soon carried on by Daniel Appleton’s eldest son, William H. Appleton. The first book published in this country by Mr. Appleton was a little volume entitled Crumbs from the Master’s Table, issued in 1831. William H. Appleton became a partner with his father in 1838, and the firm became D. Appleton & Company. In 1848, Daniel Appleton retired, and William H. and his brother, John A. Appleton, became partners in the business. Daniel Appleton died in 1849. His son, Daniel Sidney Appleton, became a partner in 1849, and later George S. Appleton and Samuel Francis Appleton, also sons of Daniel Appleton, became partners. D. Appleton & Company was incorporated in 1897. Mr. W. W. Appleton writes:
“I cannot give the exact time when educational books were first issued, but somewhat late in the 1830’s a number of such works were published, some of them in foreign languages—French, Spanish, and German—and in the 40’s several more were added. In the 1850’s the educational list became much more important and included Cornell’s Series of Geographies, Quackenbos’s standard textbooks, Perkins’ Arithmetics, Mandeville’s Readers, and a great number of educational books in the Spanish language. One of the most interesting publications was Noah Webster’s Elementary Spelling Book, which was originally issued in Hartford as the first part of A Grammatical Institute of the English Language. D. Appleton & Company secured the publication of Webster’s Speller in 1855, and it sold nearly a million copies a year up to the beginning of the Civil War.”
VAN ANTWERP, BRAGG & COMPANY.
—The original firm of which this company was the successor was Truman & Smith, organized about 1834 by William B. Truman and Winthrop B. Smith. On June 2, 1834, this house published an Introduction to Ray’s Eclectic Arithmetic. It was the firm’s first schoolbook. Mr. Truman retiring, Mr. Smith carried on the business of educational publishing in the second story over a small shop on Main Street, Cincinnati. He was the sole proprietor of the McGuffey Readers and his other publications from 1841 until about 1852. He then admitted, as partners, Edward Sargent and Daniel Bartow Sargent, his wife’s brothers, and the firm name became W. B. Smith & Co.
Mr. Smith made an arrangement with Clark, Austin & Smith, of New York, to become the Eastern publishers of the McGuffey Readers, and a duplicate set of plates was sent to New York. From these plates, editions of the Readers were manufactured, largely at Claremont, N. H., bearing on the title page the imprint of Clark, Austin & Smith. The Smith of this firm was Cornelius Smith, a brother of Winthrop B. Smith.
Mr. W. B. Smith retiring, a new firm under the name of Sargent, Wilson & Hinkle was organized April 20, 1863, with Edward Sargent, Obed J. Wilson, and Anthony H. Hinkle as partners, and with W. B. Smith and D. B. Sargent as special partners. In 1866, Mr. Lewis Van Antwerp was admitted as a partner, and on April 20, 1868, the firm of Sargent, Wilson & Hinkle was dissolved. Mr. Sargent retired, and the new firm, Wilson, Hinkle & Co., bought all the assets. Mr. Caleb Bragg in 1871 became a partner in Wilson, Hinkle & Co. On April 20, 1877, the firm of Wilson, Hinkle & Co. was dissolved, and the business was purchased by the new firm, Van Antwerp, Bragg & Co., of which Lewis Van Antwerp, Caleb S. Bragg, Henry H. Vail, Robert F. Leaman, A. Howard Hinkle, and Henry T. Ambrose were the partners.
Mr. Van Antwerp retired January 22, 1890, just previous to the sale of the copyrights and plates owned by the firm to the American Book Company. The four active partners in that firm, each of whom had been in the schoolbook business some twenty-five years, entered the employ of the American Book Company. Mr. Bragg and Mr. Hinkle remained in charge of the Cincinnati business, Dr. Vail and Mr. Ambrose went to New York, the former as Editor-in-chief, the latter at first as Treasurer, but later he became the President of the Company.
The most notable books published by these several firms, preceding and including Van Antwerp, Bragg & Co., were McGuffey’s Readers and Speller, Ray’s Arithmetics, and Harvey’s Grammars.
G. & C. MERRIAM COMPANY.
—The business was started in 1831, but the publication of Webster’s Dictionary was not undertaken until 1843. The founders were the brothers, George and Charles Merriam, and the original copartnership style was G. & C. Merriam. In 1856 Homer Merriam joined the other brothers, with no change in the firm style.
In 1882 the firm name was changed to G. & C. Merriam & Company, and at that time Orlando M. Baker and H. Curtis Rowley were admitted to partnership. In 1892 the copartnership was changed to a corporation, styled G. & C. Merriam Company. George Merriam, one of the founders of the company, died shortly before 1882, and about that time Charles Merriam retired from the firm. Thereafter the active management of the business devolved upon Mr. Baker and Mr. Rowley. Later Mr. K. N. Washburn was made one of the Managers. Mr. Baker died in 1914, and at the present time the active management of the business is in the hands of Mr. Rowley, Mr. Baker’s two sons, A. G. Baker and H. W. Baker, and Mr. Washburn.
The original firm of G. & C. Merriam, shortly after becoming established in 1831, began publishing educational books in a small way. The first of these publications seem to have been a series of school readers, The Child’s Guide, Village Reader, etc. For many years, however, and probably almost from the time that they acquired the rights in Webster’s Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam and their successors have confined their publications to the Genuine Webster Dictionaries.