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 time ...

'' 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 United States census, 2020 census, making it the second-List of cities i ...

, 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. 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 agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the U ...

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 = Country , subdivision_name ...

, 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 a ...

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

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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'' (fou ...

'' 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

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, 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 Alfred Charles William Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe (15 July 1865 – 14 August 1922), was a British newspaper and publishing magnate. As owner of the ''Daily Mail'' and the ''Daily Mirror'', he was an early developer of popular journal ...

, 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. So ...

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

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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 one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

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)