Publisher:Houghton Mifflin

This page is the wiki-page for the publisher or imprint Houghton Mifflin. This page may be used for extended notes about the publisher, including alternate names, changes of ownership, associated imprints, locations, etc. The link above leads to the ISFDB publisher record for Houghton Mifflin. To discuss what should go on this page, use the talk page. For more on this and other header templates, see Header templates.

Houghton Mifflin History

Unchanged since 2008 and mainly false. --Pwendt|talk 18:58, 19 September 2016 (UTC)

The roots of this company go back to 1832 when William Ticknor and James Fields established a publishing house. They formed a close association with The Riverside Press, a Boston printing company founded by Henry Houghton in 1852. George Mifflin became Houghton's partner in 1872. In 1880, Ticknor and Fields merged with The Riverside Press to form Houghton, Mifflin and Company. The name Ticknor & Fields is still used as an imprint.

Acquired Educational publisher McDougal Littell in the 1990s.

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"George H. Mifflin". Cambridge Tribune. April 9, 1921.
  "Cambridge Tribune, Volume XLIV, Number 6, 9 April 1921". Cambridge Public Library (cambridge.dlconsulting.com).
—cited at Wikipedia-EN: ""Henry Oscar Houghton", more informative than the publishing company article "Houghton Mifflin Harcourt"; see also the biography "James R. Osgood"

"He was graduated from Harvard in the class of 1865 [age 20 in May]. His first relation to the publishing business was when he joined the house of Hurd & Houghton in 1867, and later he was with the Riverside Press. In 1872 he was admitted to the firm [Note] and he had continued as partner in the succeeding firms of Houghton, Osgood & Co., which continued from 1878 to 1880; Houghton, Mifflin & Co., which continued for eight years, and latterly the Houghton, Mifflin Company, of which he had been president since 1908."

Note. This implies that Mifflin was a partner in The Riverside Press from 1872. But Houghton, Osgood & Co. succeeded Hurd and Houghton, not The Riverside Press. The Wikipedia biography of Houghton states that (in January 1872!) "when Houghton became mayor of Cambridge, Mifflin succeeded him as lead partner" (no source). Lead partner in Hurd and Houghton, without any name change? If so, perhaps he had been a junior partner from 1867 ("joined the house").

Variant Names

• Houghton, Mifflin and Company. The Riverside Press, Cambridge.
  • 1889 (Verified)

For one 1870 book, the Library of Congress (LCCN: 45-40833) records Hurd and Houghton and The Riverside Press as joint publishers in 1870, H.O. Houghton and Company as printer. Perhaps The Riverside Press should be considered Houghton's imprint as a publisher. --Pwendt|talk 19:14, 19 September 2016 (UTC)

• Houghton, Mifflin and Co.

One 1902 title page these two lines at the bottom of the page (T1952229)

(colophon, red, The Riverside Press) HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND CO. BOSTON AND NEW YORK 1902

(not mentioned on the copyright page) --Pwendt|talk 17:08, 21 September 2016 (UTC)

• Houghton, Mifflin & Company

One 1907 title page as transcribed by Project Gutenberg shows (T2026786)

BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO. MDCCCCVII

("HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO." on the copyright page) --Pwendt|talk 17:08, 21 September 2016 (UTC)

Variant Locations

• Boston and New York
  • 1889 (Verified)

Variant House Copyrights

• By Ticknor and Company
  • 1889 (Verified)

Ticknor and Company (1885 to 1889) was absorbed by Houghton, Mifflin in 1889 per Wikipedia. The latter would have acquired Ticknor and Company copyrights, or exercised them, or otherwise verbed. --Pwendt|talk 19:03, 19 September 2016 (UTC)

Ticknor and Fields was succeeded Fields, Osgood & Co.; James R. Osgood and Co.; Houghton, Osgood and Company; then by Houghton, Mifflin and a second James R. Osgood and Co. (Osgood and the two younger Ticknor sons per Wikipedia); the latter by Ticknor and Company. --Pwendt|talk 17:23, 21 September 2016 (UTC)