Founded by Edgar O. Silver who had been an employee of Appleton when that company published Hoshea Holt's Normal Music Course. When that book did not sell, Silver (with money borrowed from Henry C. Dane) purchased the plates and published the book himself. He sold it to schools, a revolutionary idea, since most schools at the time did not offer musical instruction. Finally he convinced the New York School Board to offer a music course in the fall semester of 1885. This ignited a firestorm of demand for music courses around the country and Silver was unable to supply the needed books. He took partners, M. Thatcher Rogers, Henry C. Dane (or Deane?), and a brother, Elmer Silver. The business was renamed Silver, Rogers & Co.

In 1888 Rogers sold to a young investor, Frank W. Burdett, making the company Silver Burdett Co.

The second book the company published was First Steps in Reading, a book bitterly attacked by professional educators.

Silver died in 1909, and Burdett ran the company until his death in 1919.

The company has passed through several changes of ownership.

The company remains a major publisher of music textbooks.

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Founded by Stokes a couple of years after he graduated from Yale Law School (but he had already gotten some experience under his belt by working for Dodd Mead & Co.) and Joel P. White. White left in 1887, replaced by Stokes' brother Horace.

Stokes hoped to discover and develop new American writers. But he sold almost anything to make money, from reprints to stationery, calendars and novelty items.

English-German dictionaries, "Patriotic Songs" series, "Flower Songs", "Bird Songs", "Handy Volume" series of classical authors.

Published established writers: Francis Hodgson Burnett, Stephen Crane, H.G. Wells, Honore Willsie (who married WIlliam Morrow, Stoke's secretary and founder of his own firm).

And he published "new" writers: James Branch Cabell, Edna Ferber, Percival Wren.

Best sellers included: Munro Leaf, Ferdinand, "Doctor Doolittle" series, Little Black Sambo

Stokes was (along with MacCrae at Putnam) an opponent of the new Book Clubs of the 1920s, as well as modern advertizing methods, such as billboards, and radio ads.

Stokes died in 1939, age 82. He left the company to his sons, Horace and Brett.

They introduced the works of Marie Montessori to Americans.

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Ormond Smith issued two series of dime novels: "The Nugget", 5 cents each, designed for younger readers, about 36 titles a year. "Log Cabin", 10 cents each, four-color covers, about 60 titles a year from famous authors: Ned Butline, Edward Stratemeyer, Judson R. Taylor.

Francis Smith joined him as a partner.

"Nick Carter". Perhaps the most popular series was issued as a weekly. Because the author, Frederic Dey, could not write one a week, Smith hired a team of writers to produce them.

Horatio Alger, Jr., was a personal friend of Street, who issued 18 of his books. When he died, Frank Stratemeyer (famous for his own series of Rover Boys, Hardy Boys, etc.) wrote an additional 18 Alger novels.

William Gilbert Patten, a teen-ager, sold two stories to Beadle & Adams for $6.00. He moved to New York and became a stable writer. One of the most prolific writers of his day, he was nicknamed the "Fiction Factory". In 1894, when William Adams deducted $1.00 a day for each day Patten missed a deadline, Patten angrily quit and went to work for Street & Smith.

At Street & Smith, Patten launched the "Frank Merriwell" series under the pen name of Burt L. Standish. Merriwell was the first "All-American Boy" image. The Frank Merriwell series made Street & Smith the number one publisher of dime novels and severely hurt Beadle & Adams. (Sweet revenge for Patten). There were over 200 Merriwell titles.

Other successful series: "Tip Top Weekly", "Nick Carter", "Diamond Dick", "Buffalo Bill".

Ormand Smith was multi-lingual, collector of a large private library.

Street & Smith became the largest publisher in the world.

More series followed: "New York Five-Cent Library", sports tales. "Red, White and Blue Library", patriotic tales.

The "Hal Maynard" series was ghost written Upton Sinclair.

Frank Stratemeyer was another one-man writing factory. Using numerous pen names (Jim Bowie, Nat Woods, Jim Daly). He left Street & Smith to write for Grosset & Dunlap, where he produced his most famous series: "Rover Boys", "Motor Boys", "Tom Swift".

Street & Smith purchased the plates from M.J. Ives Co. and re-issued those books under their name.

"Magnet Library", detective tales. "Arrow Library", 325 reprints of classics.

In 1898, Street & Smith issued a non-fiction series: "Diamond Handbooks", how-to books on photography, cooking, interpreting dreams, etc. Others followed: "Alliance Library", religious books, the most success being In His Steps.

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Francis J. Schulte came up with the idea of re-issuing out -of-print books by purchasing the original plates or by haing the original publisher re-issue it for him under his name. The scheme was a big success. First book: The Little Giant Cyclopedia, which he compiled himself. Second book: Caesar's Column, a controversial socialist novel that under the Schulte imprint became a worldwide seller. Next title: Opie Read's A Kentucky Colonel.

Perhaps his biggest seller: A Modern Instance, by Howell.

In 1893, Schulte lent $25,000 to a friend who later committed suicide without repaying him. The disaster ruined Schulte, financially and emotionally, and he retired.

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Founded by Arthur James Saalfield, who worked his way up the ladder at Charles T. Dillingham Publishing. When it failed, 1891, he started his own firm wiht a partner, Saalfield & Fithc. But it, too, failed.

He tried again by purchasing the publishing arm of the Werner Comapny, which went on sale following the retirement fo Alexander Belford.

He inherited all the titles, sets, encyclopedia, and reference books that had generated a fortune for Belford, and at one time Saalfield had one of the largest houses in America.

He entered the children's book market later, and here he had phenomenal success with the "Billy Whiskers" series. He was second only to Whitman in the number of children's titles published.

Saalfield entered the "cheap book" trade, competing with Grosset & Dunlap, Donohue, A.L. Burt and others, and was again second only to Whitman in this field. THe books, 10-25 cents, sold in quantity in drugstores and five-and-dimes. Most of Saalfield's titles in cheap books were Westerns and Classics.

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Herbert Stuart Stone---son of Melville Stone, the founder of the Chicago Daily News and first president of Associated Press. Herbert was raised working for his father. His first published book was one he wrote himself, Popular Guide to Chicago and the World's Fair (1892), while still in college.

Next he worked on First Editions of American Authors, but asked for help form a college classmate, Hannibal Kimball, who publsihed the "Harvard Monthly". Kimball was the son of a businessman.

Stone & Kimball reissued the Guide to Chicago, then issued the First Editions book with an intro by Eugene Field.

Other publications: Eugene Field's third book, The Holy Cross Hamlin Garland, Main Travelled Road and Praire Songs Plus works by Joaquin Miller and Kenneth Grahame. They were so successful they dropped out of Harvard.

Next works: Dwight Moody and George Santayana

Published "The Chapbook", a magazine promoting their books.

Published a 10 volume set of the works of Edgar Allan Poe. Had 1896's best-seller, Federic's Damnation of Thereon Ware.

The firm was dissolved that year, 1896. Stone established his own publishing house, HERBERT S. STONE & CO.

Kimball purchased the rights to the old name and continued as STONE & KIMBALL. He issued several important works: H.G. Wells, Island of Dr. Moreau and Carolyn Well's Sign of the Sphinx, her first book.

Published the Daily Tatler, edited by Carolyn Wells and Kimball.

In 1897, Kimball left the business and sold his list to his former partner, Herbert Stone. (Kimball went on to become famous as one of the innovators of the modern stock market.)

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Hugh Austin Foresman and Erastus Howard Scott, both from Chicago, established this well-known textbook publishing house.

Scott had been the only active member in the partnership of Albert, Scott & Co. (See 1890).

Foresman and his brother Robert had gone to college to become lawyers, but they sold books to earn tuition money and so enjoyed the work decided to forget about lawyering. They worked for Appleton, then Silver, Burdette. While working for the latter in Chicago, he discovered the books being issued by Albert, Scott, & Co.

In 1894, they purchased the George Sherwood Publishing Co. It appeared to be a bad purchase because Sherwood books were being sold to virtually no one. However, in 1897, the state of Kansas passed a law limiting how much publishers could charge students for textbooks and the larger houses, in protest, boycotted the state. Scott saw the opportunity to unload the Sherwood books at the reduced price, and not only did Kansas agree, but the state signed several exclusive contracts with Scott as a reward.

To distribute textbooks to every school in Kansas, Scott established the Kansas Book Company to act as the state depository. It was the first of its kind in the nation, and other states soon adopted the format.

Meanwhile, Sherwood's arithmetics and spellers proved popular once in use, and began to spread into other states.

To save money, Scott decided that rather than hire regular editors, he could ask noted educators to edit and revise works in their particular expertise. This proved to be a stroke of genious that at once established Scott, Foresman books as the most "authoritative" and the most repsonsive to the needs of educatiors in real life. Example, when teachers complained that beginner's Latin was too difficult, Scott issued Lowe and Butler's Bellum Helveticum, based on the actual writings of Juslius Caesar. It was a huge success. Scott also dared to add vocabulary and pronunciation marks, a practice first ciritcized for making students too lazy to look things up, but one that eventually became the norm in foreign language textbooks. In 1889, Scott followed up this success with Harold Whetstone Jonston's edition of the works of Cicero, again with numerous teaching aids built in.

In 1898, Scott purchased the highly respected firm of S.C. Griggs. This gave him Grigg's Eclectic Shorthand and Robert's Rules of Order. The latter Scott promoted by sending a personalized copy to each newly elected Speaker of each state legislature.

IN 1908 Scott signed million dollar deals to provide textbooks for Oklahoma, Texas, and Oregon. (Immediately there was a howl of protest from Texans that the Scott Foresman aritmetic books contained objectional sexual material. Sexual material in a math book? Only after a frantic search for the offensive material did Scott realize the complaint was over "sectional" not "sexual" material: one of the math problems was set in a civil war scene featuring Yankees, which angered Southern sensibilities.)

In 1909, Scott issued the "Elson Readers", grammars with complete classics reprinted in hardback. They were originally designed to serve the new "junior high" concept that created grades 7 and 8 but the readers soon spread to other classes as well.

In 1919, Scott issued Twelve Centuries of English Poetryand Prose, the first textbook to teach the history of literature through the actual reading of literary classics. (Previously, students read only about the lives of writers and critiques of their work, not the works themselves.)

Another Scott innovation occurred in 1917 when he intorduced the "modern" study of English grammaar with C.H. Ward's Sentence and Theme. Many teachers proteste these new ideas but the book eventually succeeded.

To generate student enthusiasm for supporting America in the Great War, Scott issued Democracy Today, the first textbook designed to promote civics and patriotsim. So popular did the idea become, later editions of Elson's Readers were modified to include patriotic tales.

In 1922 cam "Literature and Life", an anthology of work designed for high schools and the first of its kind. Like Democracy Today, it emphasized citizenship and respect for the nation.

Scott published Henry C. Morrison's Everyday Problems with Science (1925), a series of science books intending to teach "modern" science in a way that would involve students in hands-on activities.

In 1926, Scott began issuing books for one grade level only, meaning each literature class or grammar class would have to purchase a new textbook.

1927 saw the first major "workshops" to supplement standard texts. "Think and Do" books were issued for Elson Basic Readers.

Scott died in 1928, but the company continued to grow.

In 1929, the first duel purpose geography and history text: Our Country Past and Present.

The 1930's saw the Curriculum Foundation Series.

Then in the 1930's came New Basic Readers. Best known as "Dick and Jane Readers". Perhaps no textbooks has become more admired, sought after and criticized as a "white, suburban" stereo-type of America.

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