William Edmond Pulsifer

“ A careful examination and inspection of the new in comparison with the old convinces one that the new differs radically from the old in (1) content, including both text matter and illustrations; (2) typography and printing; (3) binding; (4) maps; (5) size; and altogether in its much greater attractiveness as an educational instrument.
Allow me to take a snapshot or two at some of the peculiar text matter printed in the American schoolbooks of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, in order that I may more clearly emphasize the contrast between the new and the old. ”

“ Considering the fact that many millions of textbooks are now printed annually, requiring the service of high power rotary presses to print their sheets in season for use, is it not indeed fortunate for the educational world that human skill has perfected such a really wonderful instrument as this great machine, so splendidly equipped for the accomplishment of this gigantic task? ”

“ The twentieth century school or college textbook, and the means employed in making it, evidence a progress in the art of book-making and the character of the book made equally wonderful; for the modern educational publication differs in content and format from the textbook of the early days even more than the modern schoolhouse from the log cabin used a century or two ago to shelter the unfortunate youngsters who shivered and suffered therein while they were receiving such poor instruction as ignorant masters and dames could give them. ”

“ It is not necessary to remind you that publishers may to-day furnish a duplicate set of plates to any concern on earth desiring to reproduce one of their books, and that the book may be reprinted by the purchaser without the bother and expense of resetting the type; but the printer of the early days was not so fortunate, for if a concern in New York wished to reprint and sell a book originally printed in Boston, he was obliged to reset it, taking as copy the Boston production. ”

“ Even the scholarly Morse, the author of the first Geography printed in the United States, indulges in some picturesque flights of imagination, as when he writes that the great men of the Friendly Islands “are fond of a singular kind of luxury, which is, to have women sit beside them all night, and beat on different parts of their body until they go to sleep ”

“ If the text matter of the early Readers was in many cases gruesome and distressing in its effect upon the youthful mind, and the explanations, rules, and problems in early Arithmetics were at times ludicrous and extremely puzzling, it is also the fact that much of the text printed in the first American Geographies was ridiculous because the writers frequently indulged their imaginations at the expense of geographical fact. Let me quote two or three examples showing how imagination played havoc with the truth. ”

“ A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE EDUCATIONAL PUBLISHING BUSINESS IN THE UNITED STATES
1 “The history of a nation,” one dictionary says, “is a systematic record of past events; especially the record of events in which man has taken part.” ”

“ There are also extant a great many valuable periodical, magazine and newspaper articles which set forth in some detail accounts of the founders of other nineteenth century publishing houses, which accounts, together with what has appeared in book form, make a rather inchoate but highly valuable mass of data that could and should be compiled and published as soon as a scholarly man of historical habit can be found to edit and prepare it for the press. ”

“ Prior to the enactment of state copyright laws, the first of which was passed by Connecticut in 1783 and the last of which were enacted by Georgia and New York in 1786, and the passage of a national copyright law by Congress in 1790, literary property had no protection whatever against piracy. Printers could help themselves ad lib. to books of12 all kinds turned out by other printers. Dr. Noah Webster, realizing the danger to an author arising from such piracy, labored diligently for many years to secure the enactment of a copyright law. ”

“ It is truthfully said that both medicine and surgery have been perfected to such a high degree that the length of human life greatly has been increased; that sanitary science is so well understood,3 and its principles so generally practiced, that disease germs born in filth no longer exist in such abundance as in the days when, because of the ignorance or indifference of the majority of the population, food, air, and water carried these breeders of disease to their unhappy victims. ”

“ In 1853, the New York house was founded. J. N. Adelrich Benziger, a son of Charles, and Louis, a son of Nicholas, took charge of the New York house. The American firm is now entirely independent of its parent house in Switzerland. In 1860 a branch house was opened in Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1880, Nicholas C. Benziger became a partner. His father, Nicholas, was a partner in Einsiedeln, and was the son of Nicholas mentioned above. In 1887, a branch house was opened in Chicago. In 1894, Louis G. Benziger, son of Louis, became a partner, retiring in 1914. ”

“ Mr. Daniel Appleton, who was a dry goods merchant in Boston, moved and established himself in business in New York in 1825. He began the bookselling business at 16 Exchange Place by the importation of editions of English books. The bookselling business was soon carried on by Daniel Appleton’s eldest son, William H. Appleton. The first book published in this country by Mr. Appleton was a little volume entitled Crumbs from the Master’s Table, issued in 1831. William H. Appleton became a partner with his father in 1838, and the firm became D. Appleton & Company. ”

“ The early classic American period contributes freely from Longfellow, Lowell, Emerson, Thoreau, and Irving, and our early patriots and philosophers like Washington, Patrick Henry, Franklin, and Lincoln, live to-day in the school readers. Even our modern authors have their place. ”

“ That the educational publisher is doing that work with much greater skill now than at any time during the past two centuries is manifest; that he will, as time grows apace, do it increasingly better, who can doubt? ”

“ But there are a great number of people in this country, some of whom find their way into State, County, City, and Township Boards of Education, who cannot be made to believe that a textbook of this day and generation is very much, if any, better than the textbook of a century or even a half century ago. ”

“ When John Blair Scribner died in 1879, Charles Scribner became the head of the business. In 1904, the corporation of Charles Scribner’s Sons was formed with Charles Scribner, President, and Arthur H. Scribner, Vice President, and that organization remains the same in 1921.
Among the earliest educational publications of the house are a treatise in physical geography entitled The Earth and Man, by A. Guyot, translated by C. C. Felton and published in 1849; Felter’s Arithmetics, 1864 ”

“ Funk founded The Voice and in 1890, The Literary Digest. Edward J. Wheeler joined the staff as editor of The Voice in 1884, and in 1895 became editor of The Literary Digest, which position he held until 1905, when William Seaver Woods became editor.
The idea and plans of the Dictionary originated with Dr. Funk, whose first managing editor was Dr. Daniel Seeley Gregory. The Standard Dictionary was projected in 1890 and completed in 1893. Dr. Funk was editor-in-chief of all the publications of Funk & Wagnalls Company, and in his work on the Standard Dictionary was assisted by Dr. ”

“ George Plimpton are more than 300 different Arithmetics printed before 1601, the largest collection ever brought together.
Note.— (2) These old arithmeticians are responsible for what we know as the one-sixth discount, for they advertised their books at, say, $10.00 the dozen, the single copy $1.00.
7 Note.— (3) They were the pioneers in collecting and printing before the prefaces of their books, as Adams did before his preface, complimentary testimonials of their books—a practice that the modern publisher would hardly dare to follow. ”

“ Mr. Van Antwerp retired January 22, 1890, just previous to the sale of the copyrights and plates owned by the firm to the American Book Company. The four active partners in that firm, each of whom had been in the schoolbook business some twenty-five years, entered the employ of the American Book Company. Mr. Bragg and Mr. Hinkle remained in charge of the Cincinnati business, Dr. Vail and Mr. Ambrose went to New York, the former as Editor-in-chief, the latter at first as Treasurer, but later he became the President of the Company. ”

“ The present educational enterprise of this company was started in May, 1904, and the first two schoolbooks of the present list were a school edition of The Man Without a Country, and the series known as the Wide Awake Readers. Little, Brown & Company are known as the publishers of Bancroft’s History of the United States, also of Daniel Webster’s works. ”

“ From 1784 to 1913 there was a succession of partners entering and leaving the organization, and in the early days the name of the house was changed frequently, according to the changes in partnership. The name of Little & Brown was adopted in 1830, when James Brown and Charles C. Little owned the business. James Brown may more truly be called the founder of the present house than any other one man. In 1898 Little, Brown & Company absorbed the successful publishing firm of Roberts Brothers of Boston, thereby securing a large14 miscellaneous line, including the works of Louisa Alcott. ”

“ Newson & Company immediately on its organization began the publication of educational books, the first of which was Buehler’s Modern English Grammar, the original of the present Revised Edition, published in 1914.
WORLD BOOK COMPANY.
—The house was established in 1905 by Casper W. Hodgson. “It was really founded,” Mr. Hodgson writes, “in the Philippine Islands, a little farther west or east than any other American house has started.” The first office was in Manila, but soon another was established at Park Hill, Yonkers, N. Y.
The first books issued were six Philippine publications. ”

“ The Catholic National Readers were brought out in the years 1889–1894. The New Century Catholic Readers were issued from 1903 to 1905. The house has also published a History of the United States in two volumes, an Elementary Geography, Advanced Geography, and two series of Arithmetics.
The present partners of the firm are Nicholas C. Benziger and his sons, Xavier N. and Bernard A. Benziger.
BENJ. H. SANBORN & CO.
—Mr. Young, the present President of this organization, writes:
“The records of the family tree of the Sanborn publications go back into the eighteenth century. ”

“ Hopkins’ Outline Study of Man, 1873.
J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY.
—This firm originally was Lippincott, Grambo & Company, founded in 1850, and later became J. B. Lippincott Company. The present Lippincott who is the head of the concern is the son of the original founder, J. B. Lippincott.
Some of the old-time schoolbooks published by J. B. Lippincott Company were Comly’s Speller, Sanford’s Arithmetic, Cutter’s Anatomy, Wilson’s Readers, and Webster’s Speller. In 1876, the firm purchased from Brewer & Tileston of Boston the entire rights in Worcester’s Dictionary. ”

“ A law had to be passed in the Assembly permitting her to do business under her husband’s name. Mrs. Sadlier retired about ten years ago, and the business is now being conducted by her son, Frank X. Sadlier, of the third generation. The surviving textbooks of the original firm are now being published by the firm of William H. Sadlier, which is the lineal successor of the original firm of D. & J. Sadlier & Company.
G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS.
—This firm was founded in 1837 by the late George Palmer Putnam, who was born at Brunswick, Maine, in 1814 and died in 1872. ”

“ The McLellan and Ames Arithmetic and the Murche Science Readers were the first textbooks published for elementary grades. The Macmillan Company first undertook the work of publishing books for that field in the fall of 1897.
W. H. WHEELER & COMPANY.
—This Chicago concern was organized in 1897 by Mr. W. H. Wheeler. In 1898 W. C. Fidler purchased an interest in the Company. Some years later, E. E. Wheeler, son of W. H. Wheeler, was admitted to the firm, as was also John H. Pugh. These four men are still active in the business. ”

“ D. Appleton & Company secured the publication of Webster’s Speller in 1855, and it sold nearly a million copies a year up to the beginning of the Civil War.”
VAN ANTWERP, BRAGG & COMPANY.
—The original firm of which this company was the successor was Truman & Smith, organized about 1834 by William B. Truman and Winthrop B. Smith. On June 2, 1834, this house published an Introduction to Ray’s Eclectic Arithmetic. It was the firm’s first schoolbook. ”

“ Upon the death of the original partners, the firm was continued by James F., the son of Denis Sadlier.
18 In 1872, William H. Sadlier left the old firm and started a purely textbook publishing house. His first books were the Excelsior Geographies, followed shortly by the Excelsior Histories and Readers, and then a general line of Catholic textbooks. William H. Sadlier died in 1877 and the business was continued by his widow, Annie M. Sadlier, who still lives and who may rightfully claim to be the original business woman of New York. ”

“ Folding machines were not used by binders until 1875, rounding and backing machines until about 1888, sewing machines and case-making machines until about 1890, gathering machines until about 1895, casing-in machines until about 1900. ”