Little, Brown and Company is an American publishing company founded in 1837 by
Charles Coffin Little
Charles Coffin Little (July 25, 1799 – August 11, 1869) was a U.S. publisher. He is best known for co-founding Little, Brown and Company with James Brown.
Early life
Charles Coffin Little was born on July 25, 1799, in Kennebunk, Maine.
Career
L ...
and
James Brown in Boston. For close to two centuries it has published fiction and nonfiction by American authors. Early lists featured
Emily Dickinson's poetry and ''
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations''. Since 2006 Little, Brown and Company is a division of the
Hachette Book Group
Hachette Book Group (HBG) is a publishing company owned by Hachette Livre, the largest publishing company in France, and the third largest trade and educational publisher in the world. Hachette Livre is a wholly owned subsidiary of Lagardère Gr ...
.
19th century
Little, Brown and Company had its roots in the book selling trade. It was founded in 1837 in Boston by Charles Little and James Brown.
They formed the partnership "for the purpose of Publishing, Importing, and Selling Books".
It can trace its roots before that to 1784 to a bookshop owned by
Ebenezer Battelle
Ebenezer Battelle (1754–1815) was an American Revolutionary War veteran, a bookseller in Boston, Massachusetts, and a settler of Marietta, Ohio, in the late 18th century.
Life in Dedham
Battelle was born in 1754 in Dedham, Massachusetts, to Ebe ...
on Marlborough Street.
They published works of
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading int ...
and
George Washington
George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of ...
and they were specialized in legal publishing and importing titles.
For many years, it was the most extensive law publisher in the United States, and also the largest importer of standard English law and miscellaneous works, introducing American buyers to the ''
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 t ...
'',
the dictionaries of
William Smith, and many other standard works.
In the early years Little and Brown published the ''Works of
Daniel Webster'',
George Bancroft
George Bancroft (October 3, 1800 – January 17, 1891) was an American historian, statesman and Democratic politician who was prominent in promoting secondary education both in his home state of Massachusetts and at the national and internati ...
's ''History of the United States'',
William H. Prescott's ''Ferdinand and Isabella'',
Jones Very
Jones Very (August 28, 1813 – May 8, 1880) was an American poet, essayist, clergyman, and mystic associated with the American Transcendentalism movement. He was known as a scholar of William Shakespeare, and many of his poems were Shakesp ...
's first book of poetry (edited by
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a cham ...
), ''Letters of
John Adams
John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, attorney, diplomat, writer, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Befor ...
'' and works by
James Russell Lowell
James Russell Lowell (; February 22, 1819 – August 12, 1891) was an American Romantic poet, critic, editor, and diplomat. He is associated with the fireside poets, a group of New England writers who were among the first American poets that r ...
and
Francis Parkman
Francis Parkman Jr. (September 16, 1823 – November 8, 1893) was an American historian, best known as author of '' The Oregon Trail: Sketches of Prairie and Rocky-Mountain Life'' and his monumental seven-volume '' France and England in North Am ...
. Little, Brown and Company was the American publisher for
Edward Gibbon
Edward Gibbon (; 8 May 173716 January 1794) was an English historian, writer, and member of parliament. His most important work, '' The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'', published in six volumes between 1776 and 1788, i ...
's ''
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire''.
The firm was the original publisher of ''
United States Statutes at Large'' beginning in 1845, under authority granted by a
joint resolution of Congress
In the United States Congress, a joint resolution is a legislative measure that requires passage by the Senate and the House of Representatives and is presented to the President for their approval or disapproval. Generally, there is no legal dif ...
. In 1874, Congress transferred the authority to publish the ''Statutes at Large'' to the
Government Printing Office, which has been responsible for producing the set since that time. still recognizes their edition of the laws and treaties of the United States are competent evidence of the several public and private Acts of Congress, treaties, and international agreements other than treaties of the United States.
In 1853, Little, Brown began publishing the works of British poets from
Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for '' The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He w ...
to
Wordsworth. Ninety-six volumes were published in the series in five years.
[Oliver 1986]
In 1859,
John Bartlett became a partner in the firm. He held the rights to his ''
Familiar Quotations'', and Little, Brown published the 15th edition of the work in 1980, 125 years after its first publication. John Murray Brown, James Brown's son, took over when Augustus Flagg retired in 1884. In the 1890s, Little, Brown expanded into general publishing, including fiction. In 1896, it published ''
Quo Vadis''. In 1898, Little, Brown purchased a list of titles from the
Roberts Brothers firm.
[ 19th century employees included ]Charles Carroll Soule __NOTOC__
Charles Carroll Soule (June 25, 1842 – January 7, 1913) was an American bookman with a side specialty in the architecture of libraries. Born in Boston to Richard Soule, Jr. (1812–1877) and Harriet Winsor (1816–1905) he ...
.
20th century
John Murray Brown died in 1908 and James W. McIntyre became managing partner. When McIntyre died in 1913, Little, Brown incorporated. In 1925, Little, Brown entered into an agreement to publish all Atlantic Monthly books. This arrangement lasted until 1985. During this time the joint Atlantic Monthly Press/Little Brown imprint published ''All Quiet on the Western Front
''All Quiet on the Western Front'' (german: Im Westen nichts Neues, lit=Nothing New in the West) is a novel by Erich Maria Remarque, a German veteran of World War I. The book describes the German soldiers' extreme physical and mental trauma ...
'', Herge's '' The Adventures of Tintin'', James Truslow Adams's ''The Adams Family'', Charles Nordhoff
Charles Bernard Nordhoff (February 1, 1887 – April 10, 1947) was an American novelist and traveler, born in England. Nordhoff is perhaps best known for '' The Bounty Trilogy'', three historical novels he wrote with James Norman Hall: ''Mutiny ...
and James Norman Hall's '' Mutiny on the Bounty'' and its sequels, James Hilton's '' Goodbye, Mr. Chips'', Walter D. Edmonds
Walter "Wat" Dumaux Edmonds (July 15, 1903 – January 24, 1998) was an American writer best known for historical novels. One of them, ''Drums Along the Mohawk'' (1936), was adapted as a Technicolor feature film in 1939, directed by John Ford and s ...
's '' Drums Along the Mohawk'', William Least Heat-Moon
William Least Heat-Moon (born William Lewis Trogdon August 27, 1939) is an American travel writer and historian of English, Irish, and Osage ancestry. He is the author of several books which chronicle unusual journeys through the United States, ...
's ''Blue Highways
''Blue Highways'' is an autobiographical travel book, published in 1982, by William Least Heat-Moon, born William Trogdon.
Summary
In 1978, after separating from his wife and losing his job as a teacher, Heat-Moon, 38 at the time, took an extend ...
'', Tracy Kidder's '' The Soul of a New Machine'', and J. D. Salinger's '' The Catcher in the Rye''.[
Salinger later terminated his contract with the publishing house sometime in the 1970s, though his novel was still published by Little, Brown.
Other prominent figures published by Little, Brown in the 20th and early 21st centuries have included Nagaru Tanigawa, Donald Barthelme, ]Louisa M. Alcott
Louisa May Alcott (; November 29, 1832March 6, 1888) was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet best known as the author of the novel ''Little Women'' (1868) and its sequels '' Little Men'' (1871) and '' Jo's Boys'' (1886). Raised i ...
, Catherine Drinker Bowen, Bernie Brillstein, Thornton Burgess
Thornton Waldo Burgess (January 17, 1874 – June 5, 1965) was an American conservationist and author of children's stories. He was sometimes known as the Bedtime Story-Man, after his newspaper column ''Bedtime Stories''. By the time he retire ...
, Hortense Calisher
Hortense Calisher (December 20, 1911 – January 13, 2009) was an American writer of fiction and the second female president of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Biography Personal life
Born in New York City, and a graduate of Hunter Co ...
, Bruce Catton, A. J. Cronin
Archibald Joseph Cronin (19 July 1896 – 6 January 1981), known as A. J. Cronin, was a Scottish physician and novelist. His best-known novel is ''The Citadel'' (1937), about a Scottish doctor who serves in a Welsh mining village before achievi ...
, Peter De Vries
Peter De Vries (February 27, 1910 – September 28, 1993) was an American editor and novelist known for his satiric wit. He has been described by the philosopher Daniel Dennett as "probably the funniest writer on religion ever".
Biography
De Vr ...
, J. Frank Dobie, C. S. Forester, John Fowles, Malcolm Gladwell, Pete Hamill
Pete Hamill (born William Peter Hamill; June 24, 1935August 5, 2020) was an American journalist, novelist, essayist and editor. During his career as a New York City journalist, he was described as "the author of columns that sought to capture ...
, Cynthia Harrod-Eagles
Cynthia Harrod-Eagles (born 13 August 1948) is a British writer of romance and mystery novels. She normally writes under her own name but also uses the pseudonyms Emma Woodhouse and Elizabeth Bennett. Cynthia was born on 13 August 1948 at Sheph ...
, Lillian Hellman, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., Henry Kissinger
Henry Alfred Kissinger (; ; born Heinz Alfred Kissinger, May 27, 1923) is a German-born American politician, diplomat, and geopolitical consultant who served as United States Secretary of State and National Security Advisor under the presid ...
, Elizabeth Kostova, Norman Mailer, William Manchester
William Raymond Manchester (April 1, 1922 – June 1, 2004) was an American author, biographer, and historian. He was the author of 18 books which have been translated into over 20 languages. He was awarded the National Humanities Medal and the ...
, Nelson Mandela, John P. Marquand
John Phillips Marquand (November 10, 1893 – July 16, 1960) was an American writer. Originally best known for his Mr. Moto spy stories, he achieved popular success and critical respect for his satirical novels, winning a Pulitzer Prize for '' ...
, Masters and Johnson, Stephenie Meyer, Rick Moody, Ogden Nash
Frederic Ogden Nash (August 19, 1902 – May 19, 1971) was an American poet well known for his light verse, of which he wrote over 500 pieces. With his unconventional rhyming schemes, he was declared by ''The New York Times'' the country's best ...
, Edwin O'Connor, Erich Maria Remarque, Alice Sebold, David Sedaris, George Stephanopoulos, Gwyn Thomas, Gore Vidal, David Foster Wallace, Evelyn Waugh, P. G. Wodehouse, James Patterson and Herman Wouk
Herman Wouk ( ; May 27, 1915 – May 17, 2019) was an American author best known for historical fiction such as ''The Caine Mutiny'' (1951) for which he won the Pulitzer Prize in fiction.
His other major works include ''The Winds of War'' and ...
. Little, Brown also published the photography of Ansel Adams.[
The company was purchased by Time Inc. in 1968,.][ Little, Brown acquired the medical publisher College Hill Press in 1986. Little, Brown was made part of the Time Warner Book Group when Time merged with Warner Communications to form ]Time Warner
Warner Media, LLC ( traded as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City, United States.
It was originally established in 1972 by ...
in 1989. All editing staff moved from Boston to Time Warner Book Group offices in New York City by 2001.
In 2001, Michael Pietsch became Publisher of Little, Brown.
Little, Brown expanded into the UK in 1992 when TWBG bought MacDonald & Co
Little, Brown Book Group is a UK publishing company created in 1992, with multiple predecessors. Since 2006 Little, Brown Book Group has been owned by Hachette UK, a subsidiary of Hachette Livre. It was acquired in 2006 from Time Warner of New ...
from Maxwell Communications
Maxwell Communication Corporation plc was a leading British media business. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. It collapsed in 1991 following the death of its titular owner.
History
The c ...
, taking on its Abacus (upmarket paperback) and Orbit
In celestial mechanics, an orbit is the curved trajectory of an object such as the trajectory of a planet around a star, or of a natural satellite around a planet, or of an artificial satellite around an object or position in space such as ...
(science fiction) lists, and authors including Iain Banks. Feminist publisher Virago Press followed in 1996. Also in 1996, Wolters Kluwer acquired Little, Brown's legal and medical publishing division and incorporated it into its Aspen
Aspen is a common name for certain tree species; some, but not all, are classified by botanists in the section ''Populus'', of the '' Populus'' genus.
Species
These species are called aspens:
*'' Populus adenopoda'' – Chinese aspen (C ...
and Lippincott-Raven imprints.
21st century
In 2006, the Time Warner Book Group was sold to French publisher Hachette Livre. Following this, the Little, Brown imprint is used by Hachette Livre's U.S. publishing company, Hachette Book Group USA.
In 2011, Little, Brown launched an imprint devoted to suspense publishing: Mulholland Books
Mulholland Books (US) is an imprint of Little, Brown and Company, a division of the Hachette Book Group. It specializes in publishing mysteries, thrillers, and suspense novels.
History
Little, Brown and Company announced the creation of Mulho ...
. In February 2013, Reagan Arthur was selected to be publisher of Little, Brown, while closing her five-year-old imprint, Reagan Arthur Books.
In October 2017, Little, Brown started an unnamed imprint devoted to health, lifestyle, psychology, and science with the appointment of Tracy Behar as the imprint's vice president, publisher, and editor-in-chief. The imprint Little, Brown Spark launched in fall 2018.
In February 2020, Hachette Book Group
Hachette Book Group (HBG) is a publishing company owned by Hachette Livre, the largest publishing company in France, and the third largest trade and educational publisher in the world. Hachette Livre is a wholly owned subsidiary of Lagardère Gr ...
acquired 1,000 titles for young readers from Disney Book Group for Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.
See also
* Badminton Library
* Books in the United States
* List of largest UK book publishers
* Little, Brown Book Group
Little, Brown Book Group is a UK publishing company created in 1992, with multiple predecessors. Since 2006 Little, Brown Book Group has been owned by Hachette UK, a subsidiary of Hachette Livre. It was acquired in 2006 from Time Warner of ...
References
Further reading
* Little, Brown and Company, ''One Hundred Years of Publishing, 1837-1937.'' Boston, MA: Little, Brown & Co.
* Oliver, Bill (1986), "Little, Brown and Company", in Peter Dzwonkonski (ed.), ''Dictionary of Literary Biography - Volume Forty-nine - American Literary Publishing Houses, 1638–1899 Part 1: A–M.'' Detroit, MI: Gale Research Company.
External links
* (Little, Brown and Company)
Little, Brown Book Group , Hachette UK
{{Authority control
1837 establishments in Massachusetts
Publishing companies based in New York City
Book publishing companies based in New York (state)
Former Time Warner subsidiaries
Lagardère Media
Publishing companies established in 1837
American companies established in 1837