Silver Burdett was an American

primary education Primary education is the first stage of Education, formal education, coming after preschool/kindergarten and before secondary education. Primary education takes place in ''primary schools'', ''elementary schools'', or first schools and middle s ...

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, but also of learners ( ...

publishing Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...

imprint previously operated by

Pearson Education Pearson Education, known since 2011 as simply Pearson, is the educational publishing and services subsidiary of the international corporation Pearson plc. The subsidiary was formed in 1998, when Pearson plc acquired Simon & Schuster's educatio ...

, which is a division of media conglomerate Pearson PLC. The trademark was last owned by Savvas Learning Company.

History

Silver Burdett first formed as a

company A company, abbreviated as co., is a Legal personality, legal entity representing an association of legal people, whether Natural person, natural, Juridical person, juridical or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members ...

in 1888 when Frank W. Burdett purchased a controlling interest in the textbook publishing company, Silver & Company. In 1962, it was acquired by

Time Inc. Time Inc. (also referred to as Time & Life, Inc. later on, after their two onetime flagship magazine publications) was an American worldwide mass media corporation founded on November 28, 1922, by Henry Luce and Briton Hadden and based in New ...

, and it became the distributor of

Time-Life Books Time Life, Inc. (also habitually represented with a hyphen as Time-Life, Inc., even by the company itself) was an American multi-media conglomerate company formerly known as a prolific production/publishing company and direct marketeer seller ...

schools A school is the educational institution (and, in the case of in-person learning, the building) designed to provide learning environments for the teaching of students, usually under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of ...

and

libraries A library is a collection of Book, books, and possibly other Document, materials and Media (communication), media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or electron ...

. In 1965 it became the first division of the General Learning Corporation, a multi-million dollar collaboration between Time Inc. and

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1892, incorporated in the New York (state), state of New York and headquartered in Boston. Over the year ...

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster LLC (, ) is an American publishing house owned by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts since 2023. It was founded in New York City in 1924, by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. Along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group US ...

purchased it in 1986, and merged it with Ginn & Company, a leading el-hi (

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

and

high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...

) textbook publisher - which formed the imprint Silver Burdett & Ginn. In 1998, Pearson PLC acquired Simon & Schuster's educational businesses (which included Silver Burdett & Ginn) from S&S parent Viacom, and created Pearson Education.

Termination

Pearson closed Silver Burdett in 1999. The Silver Burdett Ginn name persisted for some time as Silver Burdett Ginn Religion, a Catholic publishing division operated under

Scott Foresman Scott Foresman was an elementary educational publisher for PreK through Grade 6 in all subject areas. Its titles are now owned by Savvas Learning Company which formed from former Pearson Education K12 division. The old Glenview headquarters ...

before it was sold to

RCL Benziger RCL Benziger is a Roman Catholic book-publishing house founded in 1792 by Joseph Charles Benziger in Einsiedeln, Switzerland. It is currently based in Cincinnati, Ohio, and operates as a subsidiary of Kendall Hunt Publishing. History The com ...

in 2007 (which also acquired Benziger from

McGraw-Hill McGraw Hill is an American education science company that provides educational content, software, and services for students and educators across various levels—from K-12 to higher education and professional settings. They produce textbooks, ...

in the same year). The trademark registration for Silver Burdett Ginn was transferred to Savvas Learning Company after Pearson sold its US K-12 education division in 2020 and lapsed in 2021.

References

{{Authority control Book publishing companies of the United States Educational publishing companies Publishing companies established in 1888 Gulf and Western Industries