Henry
Oscar
Houghton
[1832-1895]
owned
Riverside
Press in
Cambridge,
then the
leading
printer in
America.
The
Riverside
Press,
whose
motto was
"Do it
well or
not at
all",
printed
both
Webster's
Unabridge
Dictionary
and
Worcester's
Dictionary.
Highly
unusual,
not only
because
rivals
were using
him, but
because
most large
print jobs
were still
being
exported
to London
at half
the cost.
Such was
Houghton's
reputation
as a
printer.
In Boston,
his
publishing
house was
H.O.
Houghton &
Co. His
principle
out-put
was two
magazines,
"London
Society"
and "The
Riverside
Magazine
for Young
People",
edited by
Horace
Elisha
Scudder.
Scudder
introduced
to
Houghton
the
leading
children's
authors of
the day,
Hans
Christian
Anderson,
Sarah Orne
Jewett,
Kate
Wiggins.
The famous
"Riverside
Bulletin"
was issued
by
Scudder.
In New
York,
Houghton
formed a
partnership
with
Melancthon
Hurd and
operated
as HURD &
HOUGHTON.
Their most
important
work was
the
publication
of the
Globe
Edition of
the works
of
Dickens.
In 1868
Hurd and
Houghton
purchased
"The
Journal of
American
Social
Sciences".
With the
journal
came
Francis
Jackson
Garrison,
son of
William
Lloyd
Garrison.
In 1872,
Henry
Houghton
was
elected
mayor of
Cambridge,
Massachusetts
and George
Harrison
Mifflin
became a
partner
for
$15,000
after
having
worked
several
years in
the press
factory.
For all
practical
purposes,
from this
time on,
the
publishing
house was
actually
run by the
triad of
Scudder,
Mifflin
and
Garrison.
In 1878
they
purchased
what was
left of
Osgood's
firm and
took the
name
HOUGHTON,
OSGOOD &
CO. But
Osgood's
debts were
staggering,
so the
company
was
dissolved
May 1880
and
re-established
as
HOUGHTON,
MIFFLIN &
CO. Osgood
reneged on
the deal
and
started
another
firm. He
took with
him much
of the
Houghton
list,
including
Mark
Twain.
In 1880
Ticknor,
Fields,
and
Houghton
merged the
operations,
combining
literary
excellence
and the
highest
standards
in
publication
in a new
partnership
called
Houghton,
Mifflin
and
Company.
In
December
1883, Hurd
& Houghton
purchased
two
magazines
from James
R. Osgood,
"Atlantic
Monthly"
and "Every
Saturday",
plus the
plates and
rights to
Osgood's
"British
Poets"
series.
Still,
Houghton
managed to
acquire
what most
think was
America's
most
distinguished
list of
titles and
authors.
By 1923,
it may
also have
been the
largest.
The famous
"Riverside
Literature
Series" of
paperbound
books
revolutionized
publishing
by proving
there was
a market
for
paperbacks.
Houghton
died in
1895.
Mifflin
took
charge.
In 1905
Edward
Rittenhouse
Houghton
headed the
firm. In
1908 he
incorporated
as
Houghton
Mifflin
Co. (no
punctuation).
Mifflin
died in
1921 and
William
Spaulding
took over. |