Ticknor and Fields
William Davis Ticknor and John Allen | |
Successor | Houghton Mifflin |
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Country of origin | United States |
Headquarters location | Boston |
Key people | James T. Fields, James R. Osgood |
Publication types | Books, Magazines |
Ticknor and Fields was an American publishing company based in
The firm was named after founder
Houghton Mifflin revived the Ticknor and Fields name as an imprint from 1979 to 1989.
Company history
Early years
In 1832
During these years the firm purchased and printed the
The success of the firm was largely in part to the perfectly matched but widely varied talents of Ticknor and Fields. Ticknor gave his attention to the financial and manufacturing departments while Fields focused on literary relations and social aspects of the business. It was also during these years that Ticknor and Fields developed a close relationship with the Riverside Press, founded by Henry Oscar Houghton in 1852.
After Ticknor
In the spring of 1864, Ticknor accompanied Nathaniel Hawthorne on a trip to restore the author's health, at the urging of his wife Sophia Hawthorne.[3] During the trip, Ticknor became ill with pneumonia.[4] Hawthorne wrote to Fields that "our friend Ticknor is suffering under a billious attack... He had previously seemed uncomfortable, but not to an alarming degree."[5] Ticknor died on the morning of April 10, 1864.[6]
Upon Ticknor's sudden and unexpected death, interests in the firm were carried on by his son Howard M. Ticknor. During these years the business had outgrown the Old Corner Bookstore and Fields, now in charge of the company, was no longer interested in the retail store. He sold the Old Corner Bookstore on November 12, 1864, and moved the publishing house to 124 Tremont Street.[7] The firm also began to publish Our Young Folks edited by Howard M. Ticknor. The younger Ticknor soon retired and, in 1868, the firm was reorganized as Fields, Osgood, & Co.[8] Benjamin Holt Ticknor, son of William Davis Ticknor, was admitted at a partner in 1870. On New Year's Day, 1871, Fields announced his retirement from the business at a small gathering of friends,[9] intending to focus on his own writing. On January 2, 1871, the remaining partners bought out Fields's share of the company for $120,000 and it was renamed James R. Osgood & Co.[8]
Osgood, who considered Fields a mentor, attracted substantial new talent and published new works by Thomas Bailey Aldrich, Bret Harte, William Dean Howells, Henry James, Sarah Orne Jewett, Lucy Larcom, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward, Celia Thaxter, and Charles Dudley Warner.[10]
Final years
The firm invested in
Twentieth-century revival
In 1979, Houghton Mifflin revived the Ticknor and Fields name as an imprint. Chester Kerr was the editor from its reestablishment to 1984; Corlies Smith followed him from 1984 to 1989.[12][13]
Image gallery
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William D. Ticknor
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Walden by Henry David Thoreau, 1854
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Our Young Folks, 1865
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Every Saturday, 1867 Christmas issue, featuring story by Dickens and Wilkie Collins
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Title page showing transition from name "Ticknor and Fields" to "Fields, Osgood, & Co."
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Title page during transition to the name James R. Osgood & Company, "late Ticknor & Fields, and Fields, Osgood, & Co."
Notes
- ISBN 0-9766706-4-X
- ^ Boston Directory. 1868
- ISBN 0-8021-1776-7
- ISBN 0-8129-7291-0
- ISBN 0-8021-1776-7
- ISBN 0-8129-7291-0
- ^ Tryon, Warren S. Parnassus Corner: A Life of James T. Fields, Publisher to the Victorians. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1963: 279.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-521-52666-1
- ^ Tryon, Warren S. Parnassus Corner: A Life of James T. Fields, Publisher to the Victorians. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1963: 361.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-521-52666-1
- ^ "The Project Gutenberg eBook of The American Architect and Building News, Vol. 27, No. 732, by Various." – Project Gutenberg
- ISBN 978-0-8103-1724-6.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2018-05-16.
Further reading
- Fiske, John. (1889). Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography, New York: D. Appleton and Company
- Ticknor, Caroline.(1913). Hawthorne and His Publisher, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company - via the Internet Archive
External links
- American National Biography Online, retrieved June 25, 2008
- The LUCILE Project, retrieved June 25, 2008
- Ticknor and Fields listing at Biblio.com
- Ticknor and Fields records, 1839-1881, Houghton Library, Harvard University