Horace Everett Hooper (December 8, 1859 – June 13, 1922) was the publisher of ''

Encyclopædia Britannica The ( Latin for "British Encyclopædia") is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It is published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.; the company has existed since the 18th century, although it has changed ownership various ...

'' from 1897 until his death.

Early life

Born at

Worcester, Massachusetts Worcester ( , ) is a city and county seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Named after Worcester, England, the city's population was 206,518 at the 2020 census, making it the second- most populous city in New England after ...

, he left school at the age of 16, and after gaining experience in various book shops, founded the Western Book and Stationery Company at

Denver Colorado Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Uni ...

. He sold books to the western states making use of the

United States Postal Service The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an Independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the executive branch of the Federal government of the Uni ...

Rights to and purchase of ''Encyclopædia Britannica''

He moved to

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

, Illinois in 1893 to join the firm of James Clark, publishers of cheap editions. He marketed their reprint of the ''Century Dictionary'' using

mail order Mail order is the buying of goods or services by mail delivery. The buyer places an order for the desired products with the merchant through some remote methods such as: * Sending an order form in the mail * Placing a telephone call * Placing ...

and credit by installment terms, to great success. He visited

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

in 1897 and saw that the 9th edition of ''

'' could be marketed in the same way. He also noted that ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ...

'' suffered flagging sales, and hit on the idea of using the latter to market the former — to their mutual benefit. He secured the reprint rights to ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' and ''The Times'' reissued it. Within three months 10,000 sets were sold and within five years the total had reached 50,000. Hooper bought the

copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, education ...

, and set about the production of eleven additional volumes to make the 10th edition, which was published by ''The Times'' in 1902–3. ''The Times'' appointed Hooper as advertising manager, and in 1905 he set up the Times Book Club, managed by Janet Hogarth. After the purchase of ''The Times'' by Lord Northcliffe, Hooper left the company in 1908. He set about the production of the

Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition The ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' Eleventh Edition (1910–1911) is a 29-volume reference work, an edition of the '' Encyclopædia Britannica''. It was developed during the encyclopaedia's transition from a British to an American publication. S ...

which was published 1910–11. This was published in two blocks of volumes instead of the volumes appearing serially over a number of years. Hooper established the ''Britannica Year-Book'', the first volume being published in 1913. He produced the ''Handy Volume'' edition (1915–1916) specifically for mail-order. This was a photographic reprint of the 11th edition, and was often sold with an accompanying book case.

Sale of ''Encyclopædia Britannica''

Hooper sold the copyright to Sears Roebuck in 1920 but oversaw the publication in 1922 of the 12th edition - three volumes covering the events of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

with a reprint of the eleventh edition. It too was issued in the ''Handy Volume'' format.

References

* Janet E. Courtney, ''Recollected in Tranquility'', 1926. Chapter XIV concerns Hooper * ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', 15th edition, article Hooper, Horace Everett. *Anon, ''The History of the Times'', vol 3,1947, pp 443–449 (portrait of Hooper facing p 444) *Denis Boyles, ''Everything Explained That Is Explainable: On the Creation of the Encyclopaedia Britannica's Celebrated Eleventh Edition, 1910-1911,'' 2016. Hooper is a prominent figure throughout. *Alexander Coleman and Charles Simmons, ''All there is to know,'' 1994, pp 17–24. {{DEFAULTSORT:Hooper, Horace Everett 1859 births 1922 deaths American editors Encyclopædia Britannica American publishers (people)