The American Book Company (ABC) was an educational book

publisher Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

that specialized in

elementary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ed ...

secondary school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...

and collegiate-level

textbook A textbook is a book containing a comprehensive compilation of content in a branch of study with the intention of explaining it. Textbooks are produced to meet the needs of educators, usually at educational institutions. Schoolbooks are textboo ...

s. It is best known for publishing the

McGuffey Readers The Eclectic Readers (commonly, but informally known as the McGuffey Readers) were a series of graded reader, graded primer (textbook), primers for grade levels 1–6. They were widely used as textbooks in American schools from the mid-19th centur ...

, which sold 120 million copies between 1836 and 1960.

History

American Book Company was formed in 1890 by the consolidation of Van Antwerp, Bragg and Co., A.S. Barnes & Co., D. Appleton and Co., and Ivison, Blakeman and Co. It was acquired by

Litton Industries Litton Industries was a large defense contractor in the United States named after inventor Charles Litton Sr. During the 1960s, the company began acquiring many unrelated firms and became one of the largest conglomerates in the United States. ...

in 1967 and existed as a division of Litton Educational Publishing, Inc. until being sold to the

International Thomson Organization International Thomson Organization (ITO) was a holding company for interests in publishing, travel, and natural resources, that existed from 1978 to 1989. It was formed as a reorganisation of the Thomson Organization, which had been founded by Roy ...

in 1981. Thomson then sold its American Book Company

K-12 K-1 is a professional kickboxing promotion established in 1993, well known worldwide mainly for its heavyweight division fights and Grand Prix tournaments. In January 2012, K-1 Global Holdings Limited, a company registered in Hong Kong, acquired ...

assets to

D. C. Heath and Company D.C. Heath and Company was an American publishing company located at 125 Spring Street in Lexington, Massachusetts, specializing in textbooks. History The company was founded in Boston by Edwin Ginn and Daniel Collamore Heath in 1885.D.C Heat ...

in 1981. The company was absorbed into D. C. Heath and ceased to exist as an

imprint Imprint or imprinting may refer to: Entertainment * ''Imprint'' (TV series), Canadian television series * "Imprint" (''Masters of Horror''), episode of TV show ''Masters of Horror'' * ''Imprint'' (film), a 2007 independent drama/thriller film ...

. Any remaining K-12 assets of the American Book Company are now owned by Houghton Mifflin (now

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (; HMH) is an American publisher of textbooks, instructional technology materials, assessments, reference works, and fiction and non-fiction for both young readers and adults. The company is based in the Financial Dist ...

), which acquired D. C. Heath and Company in 1995. Many of the college level textbook rights of ABC/Litton were sold by International Thomson as well, to

Van Nostrand Reinhold John Wiley & Sons, Inc., commonly known as Wiley (), is an American Multinational corporation, multinational publishing company founded in 1807 that focuses on academic publishing and instructional materials. The company produces books, Academi ...

, though some remained under the

Wadsworth Wadsworth may refer to: People * Wadsworth (surname) * Wadsworth (given name) Places * Wadsworth, Illinois, United States, a village * Wadsworth, Kansas, United States * Wadsworth, Nevada, United States, a census-designated place * Wadswo ...

imprint at Thomson, which is now

Cengage Learning Cengage Group is an American educational content, technology, and services company for the higher education, K-12, professional, and library markets. It operates in more than 20 countries around the world.(Jun 27, 2014Global Publishing Leaders ...

''American Writers Series''

Beginning in 1934 and continuing into the 1940s, the American Book Company published a 23-volume ''American Writers Series'' with Harry H. Clark as the general editor. Each volume had one or two editors and consisted of "representative selections, with introduction, bibliography, and notes". The volume on Benjamin Franklin drew a warm tribute from

Carl Van Doren Carl Clinton Van Doren (September 10, 1885 – July 18, 1950) was an American critic and biographer. He was the brother of critic and teacher Mark Van Doren and the uncle of Charles Van Doren. He won the 1939 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autob ...

Frank Luther Mott Frank Luther Mott (April 4, 1886 – October 23, 1964) was an American historian and journalist, who won the 1939 Pulitzer Prize for History for Volumes II and III of his series, ''A History of American Magazines''. Early life and education Mott w ...

. Letter quoted on the Frank Luther Mott page

References

;Notes

External links

American Book Company Records
at Syracuse University * * {{Internet Archive author , sname=American Book Company , sopt=t Educational book publishing companies Defunct book publishing companies of the United States Educational publishing companies of the United States Publishing companies established in 1890