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Adeiphi Co. 1925
Adventures in Good Eating 1936
Anderson Books 1929
Arkham House 1939
Daniel Appleton operated a dry goods store in Massachusetts. In 1813 he opened a Book Department with shipments of books from England. His son, William Henry Appleton, was hired to run the Book Department, which kept growing until William Henry broke it off to open an independent book store at which time he formed a partnership with his brother-in-law, a bookbinder, Jonathan Leavitt. When Leavitt left to start his own bookstore, William Henry Appleton hired the 16 year old George Palmer Putnam to help him with the retail store.
In 1831, Daniel decided to publish two books:
#1: Crumbs from the Master's Table
#2: Gospel Seeds.
These sold well enough he was encouraged to publish a third book in 1834: a one-volume edition of the works of Jonathan Edwards.
William Henry went to England to search for books and new authors to publish. He returned with Book of Beauty, a leather, illustrated Christmas gift. But father Daniel, shocked by it, accused his son of having "literary taste" which he thought unprofitable. Althought this attitude that the American people, mostly farmers and frontiersmen, would purchase "literature" was common at the time, William Henry persisted in seeking out higher quality writings. He returned to Europe, met Baron Tauchnitz in Germany, in Paris he met and became friends with William Makepeace Thackeray.
In 1847 he issued some travel guides: Appleton's Railroad and Steamboat Guide and many others. The best selling one was European Guide Book.
By now, William considered the book store a sideline and was concentrating on publishing. After the father's death in 1849, William's brothers joined him. John, George, and Samuel.
They issued the New American Cyclopedia, which made Appleton's name world famous. Other important works soon followed:
1856. Appleton's Cyclopedia of Biography, six volumes.
1859. Unabridged English Dictionary. That year Appleton also published the books of Edward L. Youmans, a blind educational theorist; the most successful, Class-Book of Chemistry. Youmans suggested Appleton publish Charles Darwin's Origin of Species. This success led to Appleton publishing the works of Spencer, Huxley, and John Stuart Mill.
Under the guidance of William Henry Appleton's son, William Worthen Appleton, the firm grew in size and prestige to become one of the world's most important publishing houses. He discovered Madame Louisa Muhlback, and had great success with her Joseph II (after other publishers rejected it.)
1865. He traveled to England, purchased 1,900 unbound copies of the first edition of Alice in Wonderland which MacMillan had abandoned after Lewis Carroll and illustrator John Tenniel objected to the print quality. (Carroll said the quality was "good enough" for "backwoods Americans", and allowed Appleton to purchase them.)
William Henry, however, thought his son had made a bad buy and ignored it for months. Finally, however, Appleton bound and released the book with a title page carrying the Appleton imprint. It sold very poorly at first, but gained steam after MacMillan opened an American office and promoted Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass.
1869. Published Disraeli's Lothair.
1872. Series of forty-eight Art Books edited by William Cullin Bryant. First was Picturesque America. Sold for 50 cents each.
1875. Two volume set of Memoirs of General William T. Sherman.
Other important works:
Picturesque Europe.
Artistic Interiors sold for the unheard book price of \\$300.
Jefferson Davis' Memoirs, two volumes in octavo.
1880. History repeated itself in reverse when Appleton published Joel Chandler Harris' Uncle Remus, His Songs and Sayings. Harris was unhappy with the illustrations and sold the rights for the more famous Uncle Remus and His Friends to Century.
1880. Helped form the American Book Company (see for further details).
1883. Normal Music Course by Hosea Edson Holt. This school instruction manual did not sell, but an employee, Edgar Silver, thought he could successfully promote it. He purchased the plates and established in 1885 the SILVER BURDETTE CO. (see for further details).
1884. Acquired rights to Webster's Speller, advertized as "the cheapest, the best, and the most extensively used spelling-book ever published." Became Appleton's biggest seller, second in publishing only to the Bible. The books were popularly known as "Blue Backs" from their bindings.
1886. International Education Series. 60 volumes.
1888. "Town & Country Library" fiction series. Issued in two editions, one paper, one cloth. New title each month.
1892. Principles and Practice of Medicine by William Osler.
1895. Re-issued Uncle Remus book with new illustrations.
1895. Seward's Travels Around the World, became the best selling travel book to date. Also that year, Badge of Red Courage by Stephen Crane.
1896. Exploits of Brigadier General. Arthur Conan Doyle. Also, Gilbert Parker. Seats of the Mighty. About this time (exact date is debated) Appleton issued Smith's Dictionary of the Bible.
1897. The Christian by Hall Caine. Also, Robert Chamber's first book, The Mystery of Choice. Another important book this year was Sarah Bernhardt's Memories of My Life.
1898. David Harum by Edward Noyes Westcott is published a month after the author died.
1900. Bank notes came due and banks, stung by the failure of Harpers, refused to renew. Faced with an anticipated \\$230,000 in debt (a small debt for a company with $5,000,000 a year in sales) due immediately, Appleton filed Bankruptcy.
Reorganized under Joseph H. Sears of Harpers. This led to rumors Appleton and Harpers would merge. Sears attempted to raise money quickly by selling "series" or "libraries".
1906. George Moore, Appearance of My Dead Life.
1908. Joseph C. Lincoln's first book, Cy Wittaker's Place.
1912. Edith Wharton's The Reef.
1915. "Whole World" Music Series, aka Appleton Green Books. Also this year, first Boy Scouts Year Book.
1919. Appleton names J.W. Hiltman as president. He was so opposed to reprints and remainders he once destroyed a warehouse of 300,000 books rather than discount them. Hiltman established the "Auto Caravan", a mobile bookstore for taking books into rural areas, resorts, anywhere people gathered.
1920. Issued the Pulitzer Prize winner, Age of Innocence, by Edith Wharton.
Another Appleton Pulitzer winner: Constitutional History of United States.
1924. Purchased Stewart Kidd Publisher. (Founded 1914, published outdoor and drama books. Its backlist included James Henshall's first book, The Book of the Black Bass; David Starr Jordan's Fishes, originally published by Holt, who had sold rights to Kidd; Frank Shay's Play Anthologies; and the Stewart Kidd Series.
1930. Appleton began negotiating with Century to merge. The deal was finalized in 1933. The new company, D. APPLETON-CENTURY CO., had seven departments: Trade, Educational, Medical, Dictionaries, Hymn Books, Music, Spanish.
1945. Sold Hymn Books department to Revell.
1948. D. Appleton-Century merged with F.S. Crofts, Inc.
1960's, company sold to Prentice-Hall.
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Appleton published several magazines, a few:
1872, "Popular Science Monthly";
1872, "International Scientific Series" edited by Edward Youmans;
1875, "London Art Journal".
****
Appleton published a few children's books. Their most successful:
1890, W.O. Stoddard's Little Smoke, A Tale of the Sioux.
1899, Ralph Henry Barbour's The Halfback, his first book.
1907, Joseph A. Altsheler, promoted as the "20th Century Fenimore Cooper", The Young Travelers. Thirty-three Altsheler books followed.
1911, William Heyliger, Bartley, Freshman Pitcher and High Button.
*****FIRST EDITIONS: From founding to 1910, first editions have the same date on title page and copyright page. After 1910, the number "1" should appear on the back page of the book. After 1950, the "1" was used irregularly; however, additional printings were listed, so lack of additional printings after 1950 would indicate first edition.
1890---AMERICAN BOOK CO.
Called by its opponents "a book trust", it was a conglomerate made up of the textbook divisions of:
Appleton
A.S. Barnes
Ivison, Blakeman & Co.
Van Antwerp, Bragg & Co.
(Harper & Brothers joined later)
In the next ten years, with funds pooled by these companies, American Book Co. purchased:
Werner School Book Co., Chicago
Cowperhait & Co., Philadelphia
Western School Board Co., Chicago
Sheldon & Co., New York
Williams & Rogers, Rochester
University Publishing, New York
Cram & Co., Topeka
American established the Indiana School Book Co. of Indianapolis and other similar subsidiaries for particular clients.
Probably American's most famous publishing event took place when it acquired the rights to publish McGuffey's Readers.
Several competitors filed law-suits charging ABC, as it became known, with being an illegal trust/monopoly. Also, ABC was accused of illegal sales methods, including bribery & kick-backs. The famous Clarence Darrow was attorney in one suit.
The legal actions took their toll and eventually the experiment was ended.
*****FIRST EDITIONS of American Book Company have no additional printings on copyright page.
Founders:
C.J. Albert, head of the Albert Teacher's Agency.
Charles Sibley, manager of Leach, Shewell & Sanborn.
Erastus Howard Scott, the active partner who chose the titles to publish.
Established to print textbooks as an adjunct to Albert's Teacher's Agency, the firm (Scott, actually) selected odd-ball titles, opinions, and methods rejected by other publishers. The firm grew rapidly with success after success.
In 1893, at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Scott met a book salesman for Silver, Burdette textbooks, Hugh Foresman, who agreed to buy out Albert so he could concentrate on his Teacher's Agency. The firm was renamed Scott, Sibley & Foresman.
In 1894, however, Sibley withdrew to enter a partnership as Sibley & Ducker, so his share was sold to Scott's brother, Coates Scott, and the new firm was renamed SCOTT, FORESMAN & CO. (see).
*****FIRST EDITIONS of Albert, Scott Co. books have no additional printings listed.
Publisher of subscription books, especially reprints of Encyclopedia Britannica. Filed Bankruptcy in 1891.
Company did not issue true First Editions.
A Bostonian, John Allyn, in 1868, purchased Sever-Francis, Harvard Square Booksellers.
In 1886 he published his first book: Kelsey's Caesar.
The book pleased Dr. George Bacon, high school principal and publisher of the educational journal The Academy. A friendship was followed by a formal partnership in 1888. Bacon's contacts in the field of education made him a great salesman and promoter.
The textbook company was the primary competitor of Ginn & Co. and D.C. Heath.
After Allyn retired in 1919 and Bacon in 1923, Bacon's sons, Charles and Paul, continued to run the firm under the same name. Paul died in 1949 and in 1951 Charles sold the firm to PRENTICE-HALL. Prentice-Hall later sold it to employees who made it an independent company again.
******FIRST EDITIONS of Ally & Bacon books have no additional printings listed.