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

by William Edmond Pulsifer

—In 1866, the copartnership of Frederick Leypoldt and Henry Holt was formed under the style of Leypoldt & Holt. From the start they were merely publisher and not retailers or printers. In 1871, H. O. Williams was admitted to the firm; Mr. Leypoldt soon withdrew, and the firm name was changed to Holt & Williams. Two years later Mr. Williams retired and the business was continued as Henry Holt & Company. Charles Holt, a brother of Henry Holt, was an active partner from 1878 to 1903, when the house became a stock company with Henry Holt as President, Roland Holt, Vice President, Edward N. Bristol, Secretary, Joseph F. Vogelius, Treasurer. In 1919, Mr. Vogelius resigned after more than fifty years’ connection with the house.

The firm’s first educational venture occurred in 1867, when the foreign language publications of S. R. Urbino and DeVries, Ibarra & Company of Boston were taken over. These two lists included the Otto French and German Grammars and some sixty French and German texts. Most of these same texts still appear in Henry Holt & Company’s list, though not in the form first issued. In 1869, the firm began what was practically its first original enterprise in the educational field when it issued Whitney’s German textbooks, starting with his German Reader, and following shortly with his Compendious German Grammar. In 1879, the American Science Series was begun with Packard’s Zoology. The announcements included James’ Psychology, Walker’s Political Economy, and Martin’s The Human Body. In the same year the first of Johnston’s books, American Politics, appeared. These books represent the earlier development of Henry Holt & Company’s educational business.

GINN & COMPANY.

—This house was founded in 1867 by Edwin Ginn. He began business at No. 3 Beacon Street, Boston, and soon admitted as a partner Mr. Aaron Lovell, afterward the head of the house known as A. Lovell & Company of New York. Mr. Ginn’s next partner was Mr. R. F. Leighton, the author of Leighton’s Latin Lessons, then Mr. Frederick Ginn, Edwin Ginn’s brother. Later Mr. Daniel C. Heath and Mr. George A. Plimpton were admitted to the firm, Mr. Heath in 1876 and Mr. Plimpton in 1880. The firm was then known as Ginn & Heath. In 1885 the partnership was dissolved, Mr. Heath retiring. The business was continued by Edwin Ginn, George A. Plimpton, and Frederick Ginn under the firm name of Ginn & Company. Since then there have been admitted at different times as members of the firm, Thomas Ballard, Justin H. Smith, Lewis Parkhurst, O. P. Conant, Ralph L. Hayes, Selim S. White, Thomas W. Gilson, Fred. M. Ambrose, Austin H. Kenerson, Henry R. Hilton, Richard S. Thomas, C. H. Thurber, T. B. Lawler, Dana W. Hall, Selden C. Smith, O. J. Laylander, F. C. Hodgdon, E. A. DeWitt, L. B. Robeson, Mark R. Jouett, Jr., J. W. Swartz, LeRoy J. Weed, Edward H. Kenerson, Norman C. Miller, and H. B. Conway. Of this number there are now eighteen surviving partners.

Mr. Edwin Ginn died in 1914. Of the other partners who have been admitted, Mr. Conant, Mr. Gilson, Mr. White, and Mr. Kenerson, Sr., have crossed the Great Divide. Mr. Justin H. Smith retired from the firm to enter the faculty of Dartmouth College. Mr. Ballard, Mr. Hayes and Mr. Ambrose also retired.

The first educational book that Mr. Ginn published was Craik’s The English of Shakespeare. This was followed by Goodwin’s Greek Grammar, the Allen & Greenough Latin Series, White’s Greek Lessons, and a course of Grade School Music Readers by Luther Whiting Mason. This series was early introduced into the Boston schools and for some time was the standard series of school music in America.

The Boston offices of Ginn & Company have been at Tremont Place, Beacon Street, in the old John Hancock house, and are now at 15 Ashburton Place.

The prototype of the Athenæum Press was started by Ginn & Company in the early 80’s. The building which now houses this establishment is located in Cambridge, and was erected in 1896.

ALLYN & BACON.

—Mr. John Allyn began business in 1868. He imported and published a line of books, chiefly Greek, but in 1886 he issued Pennell’s Histories of Greece and Rome, Comstock’s First Latin Book, and Kelsey’s Caesar. In 1888 Dr. George A. Bacon joined Mr. Allyn in equal partnership. Dr. Bacon had been, before he entered business, the principal of the Syracuse High School. Shortly after the partnership was formed, the house purchased Walker’s Physiology from A. Lovell & Company, but the book had already been in existence for some time. Both Mr. Allyn and Dr. Bacon are still living and carrying on their business.