As early as 1848 the success of the Eclectic Readers was sufficient to excite imitation and in the First Reader of that year Mr. Smith printed four preliminary pages warning his patrons not to be deceived by "Newman's Southern Eclectic Readers."
In the first century after the settlement of this country the New England Primer had a history which in some respects resembles that of the McGuffey Readers. In that case, the settlers were widely removed from the source of supply which had in past years served their needs. The Primer was strongly religious and fully in accord with the faith of the people. It served as a first book in reading and was followed by the Bible. This Primer was not protected by copyright and any enterprising bookseller or printer in a remote town could manufacture an edition to supply the local demand. The excessive cost of transportation was thus avoided.
Somewhat similar causes contributed to the widespread use and long-continued demands for Webster's Spelling Book, which was copyrighted. This book had the support of the authority of Webster's Dictionary—an original American work; and it soon became a staple article of merchandise which was kept in stock in every country store. It supplanted the New England Primer and became the first book in the hands of every pupil. Less marked in its religious instruction, the speller spread through the South and into regions where the people were not trained in the Puritan doctrines. The wonderful sales of Webster's Spelling Book remained for many years after the War; but have now dropped to insignificance. It is not probable that other books will under present conditions repeat the history of these books. There is now no wide region of fertile country rapidly filling with settlers and separated from their former sources of supply by great distance and by mountain ranges unprovided with passable roads. Even the more newly settled regions of the country are reached by railroads and the parts early settled are covered by a network of railroads, of telegraph and telephone wires which bring the consumer and the producer near together.
In the manufacture of books as with most other articles, machinery has taken the place of hand work. When W.B. Smith carried on his business in the second story over a small shop on Main street, Cincinnati, nearly every process in the manufacture of a book was mere hand labor. The tools employed were of the simplest character. Now a book-factory is filled with heavy machines of the most complicated kind, which in many cases feed themselves from stocks of material placed upon them. New machines are constantly being invented to cheapen and perfect the manufacture. Thus a very large investment of capital is now required to set up and maintain a plant which can produce books economically and with perfect finish in every part. Books are seldom manufactured in places remote from the large cities and very few of the publishers of schoolbooks make the books which they sell. They contract for them with printers and binders.
The first four editions of McGuffey's Readers were printed from the actual type, as all books were once printed; but before 1840 the readers were produced from stereotyped plates. The use of such plates enabled the publisher to secure greater accuracy in the work and also enabled him to present books that in successive editions should be exactly the same in substance as those already in use. Since that date electrotype plates have displaced stereotypes, as they afford a sharper, clearer impression and endure more wear.
In a First Reader printed in the fall of 1841 there are two pages of advertising matter in which Truman & Smith claimed to have sold 700,000 of the Eclectic Series. This book is bound with board sides and a muslin back and a careful defense of this binding is made, claiming that the muslin is "much more durable than the thin tender leather usually put upon books of this class." This statement was unquestionably true. The leather referred to was of sheepskin and of very little strength, but it took very many years to convince the public of the untruth of the saying, "There is nothing like leather."
It is said that Mr. Smith, in the early days of his career as a publisher, himself made the changes and corrections which experience showed were needed; but, about 1843, he employed Dr. Timothy Stone Pinneo to act under his direction in literary matters.
Dr. Pinneo was the eldest son of the Rev. Bezaleel Pinneo, an early graduate of Dartmouth College, who was for more than half a century pastor of the First Congregational Church in Milford, Conn. Dr. Pinneo was born at Milford in February, 1804. His mother was a woman of culture, Mary, only daughter of the Rev. Timothy Stone of Lebanon, Conn., a graduate of Yale College. Dr. Pinneo graduated at Yale in the class of 1824. A severe illness in the winter after his graduation made it necessary for him to spend his winters in the South until his health was sufficiently restored to enable him to pursue the study of medicine. He taught for a time in the Charlotte Hall Institute, Maryland, and then removed to Ohio. He acted one year as professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy in Marietta College. He studied medicine in Cincinnati and received the degree of Doctor of Medicine from the Ohio Medical College in 1843. On June 1, 1848, he married Jeanette Linsley, daughter of Rev. Dr. Joel H. Linsley, at one time president of Marietta College. Dr. Pinneo was for eighteen years a resident in Cincinnati. In 1862 he went to Greenwich, Conn., where he was occupied in literary work and in the conduct of a boys' boarding school. In 1885, after his wife's death, he removed to Norwalk, Conn., where he died August 2, 1893. Two daughters and a son survived him. Dr. Pinneo contributed materially to the revisions of McGuffey's Readers made in 1843 and in 1853; but both these revisions passed through the hands of Dr. McGuffey, then at the University of Virginia, and were approved by him. It does not appear that Dr. Pinneo exercised any personal authority over the readers. He was employed, for moderate amounts, to prepare revisions which were satisfactory to both publisher and author. In the revision of 1843, his work was confined to the Third and Fourth readers. The First and Second readers were remade by Daniel G. Mason, then a teacher in the schools of Cincinnati. In the revision of 1853 the entire series passed through Dr. Pinneo's hands. He probably corrected the proof sheets. Dr. Pinneo's latest work on the McGuffey Readers was done in 1856.
After leaving Cincinnati, Dr. Pinneo prepared, and Mr. Smith published, a series of grammars—the Analytical, issued in 1850, and the Primary, in 1854. He was also the author of a High School Reader and of Hemans's Young Ladies' Readers. These books had for some years a considerable sale.
As early as 1853 Mr. Obed J. Wilson was in the office of Mr. Smith as an employee. Mr. Wilson was born in Bingham, Maine, in 1826, and earned his first money as an axman in the pine forests which were in that day near his native town. He obtained, in the common schools, sufficient education to become a teacher and he never ceased to be a student, thus acquiring a broad acquaintance with English literature. He taught in the schools of Cincinnati when he first went West. There his abilities soon attracted the attention of Mr. Smith, who employed him. For some years he traveled as an agent, chiefly in Indiana and Wisconsin, introducing the books of the Eclectic Series. He gradually became Mr. Smith's trusted assistant, particularly in the direction of the work of agents and in the selection of new books, and their adaptation to the demands of the field. He married Miss Amanda Landrum, who was also a skilled teacher in the Cincinnati schools. Mrs. Wilson was responsible for a revision of the McGuffey First Reader made in 1863. She also at that time corrected the plates of the higher numbers of the series. For many years thereafter Mr. Wilson was the chief authority for Mr. Smith and his successors in literary matters, and few men excelled him in breadth of reading and in discriminating taste.