under New York State law. Prominent among the promoters and original
stockholders of the Company were Horace Greeley, August Belmont,
W. H. Aspinwall, G. B. Hallgarten, W. R. Travers, Eugene Kelly, J.
B. Alexander, Richard L. Edwards, and many others of New York. In
Baltimore, Robert Garrett & Sons, brokers controlling the Baltimore and
Ohio Railroad, A. S. Able of the Baltimore _Sun_, C. H. Latrobe, at one
time Mayor of Baltimore, John Hopkins, W. T. Walters, owner of the once
famous Peach Blow Vase, were stockholders. Jefferson Davis and Joseph
E. Johnson subscribed for stock, and Dr. Howard Crosby, the famous
divine of New York, was an enthusiastic supporter. General John B.
Gordon was interested in the Company and was for many years a director
and Vice President of the concern.
The educators agreed upon as authors of the new books were all
university men, and this fact gave its name to the Company. The list
of authors included Dr. Basil L. Gildersleeve of Johns Hopkins
University, Matthew F. Maury, author of _The Physical Geography of the
Sea_, Dr. George F. Holmes, Charles S. Venable of the University of
Virginia, and Professor William Hand Brown. Of the books published,
Maury’s Physical Geographies and Gildersleeve’s Latin Grammar at once
took their places as standard authorities.
Early in 1873, Ezra D. Barker was elected General Manager by the
directors. He supervised the revision of Holmes’ Readers and Spellers,
Maury’s Primary and Grammar School Geographies, and Venable’s
Arithmetic.
In 1888, Mr. C. L. Patton cast his fortune with the Company and came
to New York as the Manager of the Agents’ Introduction Department. In
1892, Mr. Patton reorganized the Company, which took over the plates
and publishing rights of the J. B. Lippincott schoolbook list, also a
list of books published by F. F. Hansell & Brother of New Orleans.
On the 31st of December, 1906, the directors of the Company decided
to go into voluntary liquidation. In this liquidation the grammar
school books were sold to the American Book Company, Gildersleeve’s
Latin Series to D. C. Heath & Company, Eadies’ Physiologies to Charles
Scribner’s Sons, and the Standard Literature Series and all remaining
publications to Newson & Company.
ATKINSON, MENTZER & COMPANY.--This firm was organized in 1898 under
the name of Hathaway & Atkinson. At the end of the year Mr. Hathaway
withdrew and the firm’s name became Atkinson & Mentzer. In 1899, the
firm published its first book, namely, the _Ivanhoe Historical Note
Book_. In 1904, Mr. Edwin Osgood Grover joined the organization and the
firm name was changed to Atkinson, Mentzer & Grover. The first book
published under this imprint was the _Art Literature Primer_. In 1911
Mr. Grover severed his connection with the firm, which from that time
on has done business under the name of Atkinson, Mentzer & Company.
* * * * *
The writer regrets to state that he has not been able to get authentic
data for historical accounts of the old firms of Brewer & Tileston
and William Ware & Company of Boston, J. H. Butler & Company, E. H.
Butler & Company, and Cowperthwait Company of Philadelphia, or Taintor
Brothers of New York. There has not been included in this record
several of the younger houses like the Southern Publishing Company of
Texas and the University Publishing Company of Nebraska. It is also a
fact that there has been no attempt to secure the records of the old
printing houses, which were not publishers as we understand the meaning
of the term.
Transcriber’s Note:
Variations in spelling and punctuation, and the use of italic (denoted
by underscores), have been retained as they appear in the original
publication except as follows:
Page 11
from Longfellow, Lowell Emerson, _changed to_
from Longfellow, Lowell, Emerson,
Page 20
Sander’s School Readers _changed to_
Sanders’ School Readers
Page 26
LYONS & CARNAHAN. This _changed to_
LYONS & CARNAHAN.--This
Page 31
SCHWARTZ, KIRWIN & FAUSS. This _changed to_
SCHWARTZ, KIRWIN & FAUSS.--This