Houghton Mifflin

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houghton_Mifflin_Harcourt

Archives: Houghton Mifflin Company records, 1866-1968, Harvard Library, Houghton Library, https://hollisarchives.lib.harvard.edu/repositories/24/resources/1251.

1908 - Houghton, Mifflin and Company incorporates, changing its name to Houghton Mifflin Company (HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY, PW, Apr. 11, 1908, at 1378)

1880 - Osgood leaves the business and the name is changed to Houghton, Mifflin and Company (THE CHANGES IN BOSTON, PW, May 8, 1880, at 480-481)

1878 - Hurd & Houghton acquires James R. Osgood & Company to form Houghton, Osgood and Company, with literary rights to both publishers' lists (THE NEW BOSTON HOUSE, PW, Feb. 9, 1878, at 169-170)

1873 - Hurd & Houghton purchases the Atlantic Monthly, which Houghton had previously printed from 1857-1865, from James R. Osgood & Company (Ballou, at 163)

1872 - George H. Mifflin becomes a partner of Hurd & Houghton, having been employed by the firm since Feb. 1, 1868 (Ballou, at 131 & 132)

1871 - on New Year's Day, 1871, James T. Fields retires from the firm, and the remaining partners buy out his shares in the company and rename it James R. Osgood & Company the next day, Jan. 2, 1871 (Ballou, at 95 & 164)

1868 - after Howard M. Ticknor retires, Ticknor and Fields is reorganized as Fields, Osgood, & Company (Winship 2003, at 22)

1864 - William D. Ticknor dies on a trip with Nathaniel Hawthorne on Apr. 10, 1864, after which Ticknor's son, Howard M. Ticknor carries on his father's interests in the firm and James R. Osgood, having been employed by the firm for 9 years, becomes third partner with James T. Fields as senior partner (Ballou, at 63)

1864 - Henry O. Houghton partners with Melancthon Hurd, who brings much-needed capital to Houghton's printing operations and obtains a 50% ownership of the Riverside Press, to form Hurd & Houghton, a combined printing and publishing firm, on Mar. 1, 1964 (Ballou, at 1 & 55 & 57)

1863 - Little, Brown, which since 1849 had engaged in five-year printing contracts with Houghton, negotiates a new printing contract for one year only in May 1863; on Dec. 16, 1863, two days after the Merriam's had engaged the services of H. O. Houghton & Company to print the revised 4th edition of the 1864 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary, Little, Brown informs Houghton of its intention not to renew the agreement in 1864 (Ballou, at 39 & 43 & 49)

1859 - William D. Ticknor purchases the Atlantic Monthly from the liquidating publishing firm Phillips, Sampson & Company, which had engaged the Riverside Press as its printer, an arrangement that continues under Ticknor & Fields's ownership, in October 1859 (Ballou, at 35 & 45)

1855 - Edmund Hatch Bennett terminates his active partnership in H. O. Houghton & Company in September 1855, although he continues his involvement in the firm as an investor, and Houghton runs the press by himself (Ballou, at 32)

1854 - John Reed retires and the firm changes name to Ticknor & Fields (Ballou, at 61)

1852 - Houghton and Haywood's partnerships ends on May 10, 1852, leading to a new partnership between Houghton and Edmund Hatch Bennett as H. O. Houghton & Company (Ballou, at 29-30)

1852 - Houghton & Haywood purchase and move into a printing plant alongside the Charles River that they call the Riverside Press (Ballou, at 28-29).

1851 - Bolles leaves Bolles & Houghton, leading Houghton to enter into a partnership with his cousin, Rufus Haywood, who bought out Bolles's half interest in the firm, renamed Houghton & Haywood (Ballou, at 27)

1849 - Henry O. Houghton buys John D. Freeman's interest in Freeman & Bolles, making him a partner in the printing business, which subsequently changed its name to Bolles & Houghton (Ballou, at 1)

1849 - William D. Ticknor changes the firm's name to Ticknor, Reed & Fields, to reflect the involvement of junior partners John Reed and James T. Fields, on Sept. 10, 1849 (Ballou, at 61; Newsome, at 72)

1843 - James T. Fields and John Reed join Ticknor in his publishing firm, which is renamed William D. Ticknor & Company, as junior partners on July 1, 1843 (Ballou, at 60-61; Newsome, at 53)

1834 - William D. Ticknor buys out John Allen's share of the business and operates the firm as William D. Ticknor (Ballou, at 60)

1832 - William Ticknor and John Allen purchase the Old Corner Bookstore in Boston and begin publishing operations as Allen & Ticknor (Ballou, at 60)

Sources

Copartnership Notices, PW, Feb. 9, 1878, at 162.

The New Boston House, PW, Feb. 9, 1878, at 169-170.

The Changes in Boston, PW, May 8, 1880, at 480-481.

Houghton Mifflin Company, PW, Apr. 11, 1908, at 1378.

Cult of the Colophon, PW, Aug. 6, 1927, at 384-389 (Houghton Mifflin's colophons are on page 385).

Florence Wilson Newsome, The Publishing and Literary Activities of the Predecessors of Ticknor and Fields, 1829-1849 (M.A. thesis, Boston University Graduate School 1942), https://hdl.handle.net/2144/7541.

Ellen B. Ballou, THE BUILDING OF THE HOUSE: HOUGHTON MIFFLIN'S FORMATIVE YEARS (Houghton Mifflin 1970), https://archive.org/details/buildingofhouse00ball/page/n5/mode/2up.

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