American Book Company (1890)
The American Book Company once held the textbook education of American children in its hands. From elementary classrooms to college lecture halls, its books shaped what students read, memorized, and believed about the world. How did a single publisher come to occupy such a commanding position, and what happened when that position finally unraveled? The story begins not with a startup but with a merger, one that brought four rival publishing houses together under a single roof in 1890.
Van Antwerp, Bragg and Co., A.S. Barnes and Co., D. Appleton and Co., and Ivison, Blakeman and Co. were each significant educational publishers on their own. When they joined forces in 1890 to form the American Book Company, they created a publisher with reach across all levels of schooling, from elementary grades through college. The consolidation gave the new company an enormous catalog and a distribution network that few competitors could match. What the merged company also inherited was the most famous schoolbook series in American history.
The McGuffey Readers had been circulating through American classrooms since 1836, long before the American Book Company existed. By the time the series finally ran its course in 1960, those readers had sold 120 million copies. That figure made them one of the best-selling series of books in the nation's history, and it was the American Book Company that carried them through much of that long run. The readers gave the company both its most recognizable product and its deepest roots in the elementary school market.
Litton Industries acquired the American Book Company in 1967, folding it into a division called Litton Educational Publishing, Inc. That arrangement lasted until 1981, when the International Thomson Organization purchased the company. Thomson did not hold it long: in the same year, it sold the K-12 assets to D.C. Heath and Company. The college-level textbook rights took a different path. Many of those went to Van Nostrand Reinhold, while some titles remained under the Wadsworth imprint at Thomson, a line that eventually became part of Cengage Learning.
D.C. Heath and Company absorbed the American Book Company completely, ending its existence as a standalone imprint. The assets did not stay with Heath indefinitely either. In 1995, Houghton Mifflin acquired D.C. Heath and Company, pulling with it whatever remained of the American Book Company's K-12 catalog. Houghton Mifflin later became Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and that is where any surviving assets from the original 1890 consolidation now reside.
Beginning in 1934, the American Book Company launched a 23-volume set called the American Writers Series, continuing the project into the 1940s. Harry H. Clark served as the general editor for the entire run. Each volume carried one or two editors and was organized around representative selections accompanied by introductions, bibliographies, and notes. The volume dedicated to Benjamin Franklin drew particular notice: Carl Van Doren contributed a warm tribute to Frank Luther Mott, a connection that linked two prominent scholars of American literature through the pages of a classroom series.
Common questions
What is the American Book Company and when was it founded?
The American Book Company was an educational book publisher in the United States that specialized in elementary, secondary, and college-level textbooks. It was formed in 1890 through the consolidation of four publishers: Van Antwerp, Bragg and Co., A.S. Barnes and Co., D. Appleton and Co., and Ivison, Blakeman and Co.
Why is the American Book Company best known?
The American Book Company is best known for publishing the McGuffey Readers, a series that sold 120 million copies between 1836 and 1960. The readers were one of the most widely distributed schoolbook series in American history.
Who acquired the American Book Company in 1967?
Litton Industries acquired the American Book Company in 1967. The company then operated as a division of Litton Educational Publishing, Inc. until it was sold to the International Thomson Organization in 1981.
What happened to the American Book Company's K-12 assets?
The International Thomson Organization sold the American Book Company's K-12 assets to D.C. Heath and Company in 1981. Houghton Mifflin then acquired D.C. Heath and Company in 1995, so any remaining K-12 assets are now owned by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
What was the American Writers Series published by the American Book Company?
The American Writers Series was a 23-volume collection published by the American Book Company beginning in 1934 and continuing into the 1940s. Harry H. Clark served as general editor, and each volume featured representative selections with introductions, bibliographies, and notes.
Where did the American Book Company's college textbook rights end up?
Many of the college-level textbook rights held by American Book Company and Litton were sold to Van Nostrand Reinhold. Some titles remained under the Wadsworth imprint at Thomson, which is now Cengage Learning.
All sources
13 references cited across the entry
- 1webMcGuffey Readers WorldThe Paradigm Company
- 2webAmerican Book Company RecordsSyracuse University Library
- 3journalAmerican Literature in the Marketplace. Literature and Cultural Inquiry.Seymour Betsky — Blackwell Publishing — September 1983
- 4newsLitton Plans Publishing Group SaleN. r Kleinfield — 1981-01-29
- 5bookGreat Traditions in EthicsJanuary 1953
- 6webGreat Traditions in EthicsCengage Learning
- 7journalEmerson, Hawthorne, Longfellow, and Whitman, Edited by Harry H. Clark (Book Review)Stewart, Randall — 1 January 1934
- 8journalReviewed works: Benjamin Franklin: Representative Selections, with Introduction, Bibliography, and Notes by Frank Luther Mott and Chester E. Jorgenson; Benjamin Franklin, Englishman and American by Verner Winslow CraneC. H. Faust — 1938
- 9journalReviewed works: John Lothrop Motley: Representative Selections, with Introduction, Bibliography, and Notes edited by Chester Penn Higby, Professor of History, University of Wisconsin, and B. T. Schantz, Instructor in English, Colgate University; Francis Parkman: Representative Selections, with Introduction, Bibliography, and Notes by Wilbur L. Schramm, Assistant Professor of English, University of IowaHolt, W. Stull — 1941
- 10journalHERMAN MELVILLE, by Willard Thorpe (Book Review)1939
- 12journalTHOMAS PAINE, Edited by Harry Hayden Clark1944