cent on all copies sold until the copyright should reach the sum of one
thousand dollars, after which the Readers became the absolute property
of the publishers. It must be remembered that in those days this sum of
money seemed much larger than it would at the present time, and it may
be questioned whether this newly organized firm of publishers commanded
as much as a thousand dollars in their entire business. At any rate
the contract was mutually satisfactory and remained so to the end of
the author's life. Right here it seems proper to remark that although
the McGuffey readers became the property of the publishers when the
royalties reached one thousand dollars. Dr. McGuffey was employed by the
publishers in connection with important revisions so long as he lived
and the contracts specify a "satisfactory consideration" in each case.
[Later Contracts]
When, after the Civil War, these readers attained a sale which became
very profitable to the firm then owning the copyrights, the partners,
without suggestion or solicitation, fixed upon an annuity which was paid
Dr. McGuffey each year so long as he lived. This was a voluntary
recognition of their esteem for the man and of the continued value of
his work.
[The Beecher Family]
Before Dr. McGuffey completed the manuscripts of the Third and Fourth
readers he left Oxford and went to Cincinnati. Here he found himself in
close touch with a community fully alive to the claims of education.
Cincinnati, in 1837, was the largest city in the West excepting New
Orleans and was the great educational center of the West. The early
settlers of Cincinnati were generally well educated men and they had a
keen sense of the value of learning. The public schools of Cincinnati
were then more highly developed than those of any other city in the
West. Woodward High School had been endowed and Dr. Joseph Ray, the
author of the well known arithmetics, was the professor of mathematics
there. The Cincinnati College was then bright with the promise of future
usefulness. Lane Seminary was founded and Dr. Lyman Beecher was inducted
professor of Theology on December 26, 1832, and became the first
president. He went to Cincinnati with his brilliant family. His eldest
daughter, Catherine, had already won a high reputation as a teacher,
acting as principal of the Hartford (Conn.) Female Institute. His
younger daughter, Harriet, married, in January, 1836, Calvin E. Stowe,
then one of the professors in Lane Seminary. It was while in Cincinnati
that she gathered material and formed opinions which she later embodied
in "Uncle Tom's Cabin." In 1834 Henry Ward Beecher graduated at Amherst
College. He and his brother, Charles, then went to Cincinnati to study
theology under their father. While pursuing his studies Henry Ward
Beecher devoted his surplus energies to editorial work on the Cincinnati
Daily Journal. These were some of the people of Cincinnati interested in
the problem of education who took part with Dr. McGuffey in the
discussions of the College of Teachers and labored zealously for the
promotion of education in every department. While president of Lane
Seminary. Dr. Beecher was also the pastor of the Second Presbyterian
Church in Cincinnati where W.B. Smith was an attendant.
[Alexander H. McGuffey]
Dr. McGuffey left Cincinnati in 1839, and when the publisher, Mr.
Winthrop B. Smith, found it necessary to add to the four McGuffey's
Readers another more advanced book, he employed for its preparation, Mr.
Alexander H. McGuffey, a younger brother of Dr. McGuffey. Mr. Alexander
H. McGuffey had, in 1837, prepared for Messrs. Truman & Smith the
manuscript of McGuffey's Eclectic Spelling Book, and although the nature
of this task was very different from the preparation of a reader for the
highest grades in the elementary schools, the result showed that the
publishers judged wisely in selecting a man competent to prepare a
selection from English literature.
[Illustration: ALEXANDER H. McGUFFEY]
Mr. Alexander Hamilton McGuffey was born August 13, 1816, in Trumbull
County, Ohio. He was sixteen years younger than his brother, William,
and when only ten years of age was placed under charge of his brother
at Oxford, Ohio. There he studied Hebrew before he had any knowledge
of the grammar of his mother tongue. He was a brilliant student, and
he graduated from Miami University at the age of sixteen. Soon after
graduation he was appointed Professor of Belles Lettres at Woodward
College. In this field of labor his knowledge of English literature was
broadened and he acquired a love for the classic English writers that
lasted through life. But Mr. McGuffey determined to become a lawyer and,
while still teaching English literature in Woodward College, he read
law. He was admitted to the bar as soon as he reached his twenty-first
year, and became a noted and wise counsellor. His labor for his clients
was in keeping them out of the courts by clearly expressed contracts and
prudent action. He was seldom engaged in jury trials; but was expert in
cases involving contracts and wills. In such suits his knowledge of the
principles of law and his power of close reasoning were valuable. He was
often placed in positions of trust, and was for more than fifty years
the watchful guardian of the interests of the Cincinnati College.
[The Rhetorical Guide]
He prepared the manuscript of the Rhetorical Guide after the close of
his labor as a teacher. The work probably occupied his leisure time in a
law office before he acquired remunerative practice in his profession.
[McGuffey's Sixth Reader]
The contract between Mr. A.H. McGuffey and W.B. Smith, dated September
30, 1841, provided for the preparation within eighteen months, of the
manuscript of a book to be called McGuffey's Rhetorical Reader, or by
any other appropriate name which Mr. Smith might select. It was to
contain not less than three hundred and twenty-four duodecimo pages nor
more than four hundred and eighty. Mr. Smith paid five hundred dollars
for it, in three notes payable in three, twelve, and eighteen months
after the delivery of the manuscript. The book was issued in 1844 as
McGuffey's Rhetorical Guide. Its material, revised by its author, later
became, in modified form, the Fifth Reader in the five-book series, and
again much of the same material was used in the Sixth Reader published
first in 1855.
Mr. A.H. McGuffey died at his home on Mt. Auburn, Cincinnati, on June 3,
1896. He was twice married. His first wife, married in 1839, was Miss
Elizabeth M. Drake, daughter of the eminent Dr. Daniel Drake. After her
death he married Miss Caroline V. Rich of Boston. He had a large family.
A son, Charles D. McGuffey. Esq., lives at Chattanooga, Tenn.
Mr. A.H. McGuffey was a noteworthy figure in any assemblage of men. He
was tall, slender and erect. His manner was urbane and reserved. He
served on many charitable and educational boards and was attentive to
his trusts. He was an active member of the Episcopalian Church, being
many years a warden in his parish, and frequently a delegate to the
Diocesan Convention, where he was a recognized authority on
Ecclesiastical Law.
In a life of nearly eighty years in which he was active in many
educational and beneficent enterprises his early work in the preparation
of the Rhetorical Guide probably exercised the widest, the best, and
the most enduring influence. Many of the newspapers in all parts of the
country published notices of his death, recognizing in kindly terms the
service that had been rendered the writers by the schoolbook of which he
was the author.
THE PUBLISHERS AND EDITORS.
Since the McGuffey Readers became at an early day the absolute property
of their publishers, they became responsible for all subsequent
revisions and corrections of the books.
[Truman & Smith]
The firm of Truman & Smith was organized about 1834 by William B. Truman
and Winthrop B. Smith. Both had had some experience in the business of
selling books. It is highly probable that this firm became for a short
time the Western agent for some schoolbooks made in the East. But Mr.
Smith soon perceived a distinct demand for a series adapted to the
Western market and supplied near at hand. He had the courage to follow
his convictions.
Mr. Winthrop B. Smith was born in Stamford, Conn., September 28, 1808,
the son of Anthony and Rebecca (Clarke) Smith. He was, in his youth, an
employee in a book-house in New Haven. At the age of eighteen he went to
Cincinnati, declaring that he would not return to his home until he was
independent. He labored there fourteen years before he returned, not
rich, but established in an independent career. He often declared that
until 1840, he was "insolvent, but no one knew it."
Before entering business, Mr. Smith received a sound common school
education. This, grounded on a nature well endowed with common sense,
great energy, and strong determination, qualified him for success in
business. He became a man of great originality, clear-headed and
far-sighted. Toward his employees he was just, but exacting. He was a
good judge of the character and qualities of other men, and was thus
able to bring to his aid competent assistants who were loyal and
effective.
Mr. Smith married in Cincinnati on November 4th, 1834, Mary Sargent. He
died in Philadelphia, December 5th, 1885, in his 78th year. Of his
family, one son is a banker in Philadelphia.
[Their First Publications]
The firm of Truman & Smith published several miscellaneous books, mostly
reprints of standard works likely to have a steady sale. Their first
venture in a copyrighted book was "The Child's Bible with Plates; by a
lady of Cincinnati," which was entered on June 2, 1834. On June 21st of
the same year the firm entered the titles of three books: "Mason's
Sacred Harp," a collection of church music by Lowell Mason of Boston,
and Timothy B. Mason of Cincinnati; "Introduction to Ray's Eclectic
Arithmetic," by Dr. Joseph Ray; and "English Grammar on the Productive
System," by Roswell C. Smith. Of these four books the arithmetic was
issued on July 4, 1834. It was the firm's first schoolbook. In revised
and enlarged form it later became the first book in the successful
series of "Ray's Arithmetics."
But even in those early days, books would not sell themselves unless
their qualities were made known to the public. Agents had to be
employed--and at first Mr. Smith was his own best agent. There were
expenses for travel and for sample books, for advertising, as well as
for printing and binding.
[Illustration: W.B. Smith]
The Truman and Smith team did not always pull together. Mr. Truman was
not versed in the schoolbook business. Mr. Smith was.
[The Dissolution]
It is said that Mr. Smith went early one morning to their humble shop on
the second floor of No. 150 Main street, and made two piles of sample
books. In one he put all the miscellaneous publications of the firm, big
and little--the Child's Bible and Sacred Harp among them--and on top of
the pile placed all the cash the firm possessed; in the other, were half
a dozen small text books, including the four McGuffey Readers. When
Mr. Truman arrived, Mr. Smith expressed the desire to dissolve the
partnership, showed the two piles and offered Mr. Truman his choice.
He pounced on the cash and the larger pile and left the insignificant
schoolbooks for Mr. Smith, who thereupon became the sole owner of
McGuffey's Readers.
This separation of the partnership took place in 1841 and although there
is no documentary evidence of the exact method in which it was brought
about, the division of assets was in accord with the spirit of the
incident as handed down by tradition.
[A Lesson in Copyright Law]
Mr. Truman's apparent disgust with the schoolbook business may have
come in part from a lawsuit in which his firm was made a defendant.
Sooner or later, publishers are quite likely to obtain some elementary
instructions as to the meaning and intent of the copyright law through
action taken in court. Messrs. Truman & Smith took a lesson in 1838.
On October 1st of that year Benjamin F. Copeland and Samuel Worcester
brought suit in the court of the United States against Truman & Smith
and William H. McGuffey for infringement of copyright, alleging that
material had been copied from Worcester's Second, Third, and Fourth
Readers and that even the plan of the two latter readers had been
pirated.
A temporary injunction was issued December 25, 1838; but before that
date the McGuffey Readers had been carefully compared with the Worcester
Readers and every selection was removed that seemed in the slightest
degree an invasion of the previous copyright of the Worcester Readers.
As these McGuffey books were still not stereotyped, it cost no more to
set up new matter than to reset the old. On the title page of each book
appeared the words, "Revised and Improved Edition," and two pages in
explanation and defense were inserted. In these the publishers stated
that certain compilers of schoolbooks, in New England, felt themselves
aggrieved that the McGuffey books contained a portion of matter similar
to their own which was considered common property, and had instituted
legal proceedings against them with a view to the immediate suppression
of the McGuffey books and in the meantime had provided supplies of the
Worcester books to meet the demand of the West.
[Avoidance of Issue]
No objection was raised to meeting these compilers on their own grounds;
but for both parties there was another tribunal than the law. "The
public never choose schoolbooks to please compilers." They stated that
to place themselves entirely in the right and remove every cause for
cavil or complaint they had expunged everything claimed as original, and
substituted other matter, which, both for its fitness and variety would
add to the value of the Eclectic Readers. Throughout this preface, after
stating the facts regarding the suit, there was a strong claim for the
support of Western enterprise.
Although in this appeal the publishers stated that the correspondences
between the two series were "few and immaterial," a careful comparison
of the early edition of the Second Reader with the "Revised and Improved
Edition" shows that Mr. Smith took out seventeen selections and inserted
in their places new matter. To an unprejudiced examiner it appears
that the new matter was better than the old. The old marked copy of
Worcester's Second Reader, preserved for all these years, shows ten
pieces that were used in both books. It thus appears that the publisher
took this opportunity to improve the books as well as to make them
unassailable under the copyright law. In three months between the
bringing of the suit and the granting of an injunction, Mr. Smith had
made his improved edition safe and rendered the injunction practically
void.
[The Suit Settled]
The court proceeded in the usual manner and appointed a master to
examine the books and make report to ascertain what damage had been
inflicted on the owners of the Worcester Readers. But Mr. Smith was an
attendant in church and doubtless had heard Dr. Beecher read, "Agree
with thine adversary quickly while thou art in the way with him, lest at
any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver
thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison," and he had no desire
to remain there until he had "paid the uttermost farthing."
When the master, in the leisurely execution of his duty, made his report
nearly two years later, the court found that the defendants had removed
from their books the pirated parts and that the suit had been settled by
paying the plaintiffs two thousand dollars. There was no further contest
about the plan of the two books.
The Worcester Readers had a short and inconspicuous life. When this suit
was brought, their publishers were Richardson, Lord and Holbrook of
Boston. In 1836 Charles J. Hendee published them, and in 1854 they
appeared with the name of Jenks, Hickling & Swan of Boston. These
several publishers were probably gobbled up by some imaginary Book Trust
sixty years ago.
Dr. McGuffey undoubtedly inserted these selections innocent of any wrong
intent and supposed them to be in common use.
[Early Popular Schoolbooks]
As early as 1848 the success of the Eclectic Readers was sufficient to
excite imitation and in the First Reader of that year Mr. Smith printed
four preliminary pages warning his patrons not to be deceived by
"Newman's Southern Eclectic Readers."
In the first century after the settlement of this country the New
England Primer had a history which in some respects resembles that of
the McGuffey Readers. In that case, the settlers were widely removed
from the source of supply which had in past years served their needs.
The Primer was strongly religious and fully in accord with the faith of
the people. It served as a first book in reading and was followed by the
Bible. This Primer was not protected by copyright and any enterprising
bookseller or printer in a remote town could manufacture an edition to
supply the local demand. The excessive cost of transportation was thus
avoided.
[Changed Conditions]
Somewhat similar causes contributed to the widespread use and
long-continued demands for Webster's Spelling Book, which was
copyrighted. This book had the support of the authority of Webster's
Dictionary--an original American work; and it soon became a staple
article of merchandise which was kept in stock in every country store.
It supplanted the New England Primer and became the first book in the
hands of every pupil. Less marked in its religious instruction, the
speller spread through the South and into regions where the people were
not trained in the Puritan doctrines. The wonderful sales of Webster's
Spelling Book remained for many years after the War; but have now
dropped to insignificance. It is not probable that other books will
under present conditions repeat the history of these books. There is
now no wide region of fertile country rapidly filling with settlers and
separated from their former sources of supply by great distance and by
mountain ranges unprovided with passable roads. Even the more newly
settled regions of the country are reached by railroads and the parts
early settled are covered by a network of railroads, of telegraph and
telephone wires which bring the consumer and the producer near together.
In the manufacture of books as with most other articles, machinery has
taken the place of hand work. When W.B. Smith carried on his business in
the second story over a small shop on Main street, Cincinnati, nearly
every process in the manufacture of a book was mere hand labor. The
tools employed were of the simplest character. Now a book-factory is
filled with heavy machines of the most complicated kind, which in many
cases feed themselves from stocks of material placed upon them. New
machines are constantly being invented to cheapen and perfect the
manufacture. Thus a very large investment of capital is now required to
set up and maintain a plant which can produce books economically and
with perfect finish in every part. Books are seldom manufactured in
places remote from the large cities and very few of the publishers of
schoolbooks make the books which they sell. They contract for them with
printers and binders.
[Stereotyped Editions]
The first four editions of McGuffey's Readers were printed from the
actual type, as all books were once printed; but before 1840 the readers
were produced from stereotyped plates. The use of such plates enabled the
publisher to secure greater accuracy in the work and also enabled him to
present books that in successive editions should be exactly the same in
substance as those already in use. Since that date electrotype plates
have displaced stereotypes, as they afford a sharper, clearer impression
and endure more wear.
In a First Reader printed in the fall of 1841 there are two pages of
advertising matter in which Truman & Smith claimed to have sold 700,000
of the Eclectic Series. This book is bound with board sides and a muslin
back and a careful defense of this binding is made, claiming that the
muslin is "much more durable than the thin tender leather usually put
upon books of this class." This statement was unquestionably true. The
leather referred to was of sheepskin and of very little strength, but it
took very many years to convince the public of the untruth of the
saying, "There is nothing like leather."
[Dr. Pinneo, Editor]
It is said that Mr. Smith, in the early days of his career as a
publisher, himself made the changes and corrections which experience
showed were needed; but, about 1843, he employed Dr. Timothy Stone
Pinneo to act under his direction in literary matters.
[Dr. Pinneo's Work]
Dr. Pinneo was the eldest son of the Rev. Bezaleel Pinneo, an early
graduate of Dartmouth College, who was for more than half a century
pastor of the First Congregational Church in Milford, Conn. Dr. Pinneo
was born at Milford in February, 1804. His mother was a woman of
culture, Mary, only daughter of the Rev. Timothy Stone of Lebanon,
Conn., a graduate of Yale College. Dr. Pinneo graduated at Yale in the
class of 1824. A severe illness in the winter after his graduation made
it necessary for him to spend his winters in the South until his health
was sufficiently restored to enable him to pursue the study of medicine.
He taught for a time in the Charlotte Hall Institute, Maryland, and
then removed to Ohio. He acted one year as professor of Mathematics
and Natural Philosophy in Marietta College. He studied medicine in
Cincinnati and received the degree of Doctor of Medicine from the Ohio
Medical College in 1843. On June 1, 1848, he married Jeanette Linsley,
daughter of Rev. Dr. Joel H. Linsley, at one time president of Marietta
College. Dr. Pinneo was for eighteen years a resident in Cincinnati. In
1862 he went to Greenwich, Conn., where he was occupied in literary work
and in the conduct of a boys' boarding school. In 1885, after his wife's
death, he removed to Norwalk, Conn., where he died August 2, 1893. Two
daughters and a son survived him. Dr. Pinneo contributed materially to
the revisions of McGuffey's Readers made in 1843 and in 1853; but both
these revisions passed through the hands of Dr. McGuffey, then at the
University of Virginia, and were approved by him. It does not appear
that Dr. Pinneo exercised any personal authority over the readers. He
was employed, for moderate amounts, to prepare revisions which were
satisfactory to both publisher and author. In the revision of 1843, his
work was confined to the Third and Fourth readers. The First and Second
readers were remade by Daniel G. Mason, then a teacher in the schools of
Cincinnati. In the revision of 1853 the entire series passed through Dr.
Pinneo's hands. He probably corrected the proof sheets. Dr. Pinneo's
latest work on the McGuffey Readers was done in 1856.
After leaving Cincinnati, Dr. Pinneo prepared, and Mr. Smith published,
a series of grammars--the Analytical, issued in 1850, and the Primary,
in 1854. He was also the author of a High School Reader and of Hemans's
Young Ladies' Readers. These books had for some years a considerable
sale.
[Obed J. Wilson]