Alfred Harcourt (; January 31, 1881 – June 20, 1954) was an American publisher and compiler who co-founded Harcourt, Brace & Howe in 1919.

Biography

Harcourt was the son of Gertrude M. Elting and Charles M. Harcourt. Alfred was born in New Paltz, New York to a fruit farmer and attended the New Paltz Normal School. While at the

normal school A normal school or normal college is an institution created to train teachers by educating them in the norms of pedagogy and curriculum. In the 19th century in the United States, instruction in normal schools was at the high school level, turni ...

Harcourt became a member of the Delphic Fraternity. An illness at age 9 led to his love for books and reading. After his studies at New Paltz, Harcourt attended

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

where he was an editor of the student newspaper, the

Columbia Spectator The ''Columbia Daily Spectator'' (known colloquially as the ''Spec'') is the student newspaper of Columbia University. Founded in 1877, it is the oldest continuously operating college news daily in the nation after ''The Harvard Crimson'', and has ...

. Harcourt graduated from

Columbia College of Columbia University Columbia College is the oldest undergraduate college of Columbia University, situated on the university's main campus in Morningside Heights in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded by the Church of England in 1754 as King's ...

in 1904 with fellow grad

Donald Brace Donald Clifford Brace (December 27, 1881, West Winfield, New York – September 20, 1955) was an American publisher and founder of the publishing company Harcourt, Brace & Howe in 1919. Brace graduated from Columbia College of Columbia University ...

. The two joined Henry Holt and Company before founding

Harcourt Brace and Company Harcourt () was an American publishing firm with a long history of publishing fiction and nonfiction for adults and children. The company was last based in San Diego, California, with editorial/sales/marketing/rights offices in New York City an ...

in 1919. Alfred Harcourt represented some of the most recognized writers of the time such as Robert Frost

Sinclair Lewis Harry Sinclair Lewis (February 7, 1885 – January 10, 1951) was an American writer and playwright. In 1930, he became the first writer from the United States (and the first from the Americas) to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, which was ...

Carl Sandburg Carl August Sandburg (January 6, 1878 – July 22, 1967) was an American poet, biographer, journalist, and editor. He won three Pulitzer Prizes: two for his poetry and one for his biography of Abraham Lincoln. During his lifetime, Sandburg ...

, George Orwell,

Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Woolf was born i ...

, T.S. Eliot, and E.E. Cummings. Harcourt retired from his business due to poor health in 1942 and died in 1954 in

Santa Barbara, California Santa Barbara ( es, Santa Bárbara, meaning "Saint Barbara") is a coastal city in Santa Barbara County, California, of which it is also the county seat. Situated on a south-facing section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Co ...

. He remained director of Harcourt Brace until his death. Harcourt's second wife, Ellen Knowles, founded the Alfred Harcourt Foundation in 1962. She died in 1984.Ellen Knowles Harcourt, 94; Book Editor, Philanthropist, New York Times Obituary, January 7, 1984.

References

External links

The Alfred Harcourt Foundation
* (120-page memoir, apparently, and ''Letters of Sinclair Lewis'' that includes their correspondence) American publishers (people) American book publishing company founders Columbia College (New York) alumni People from New Paltz, New York People from Santa Barbara, California 1881 births 1954 deaths {{US-publish-bio-stub