Silver Burdett is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 elementary education textbook

Textbook

A textbook or coursebook is a manual of instruction in any branch of study. Textbooks are produced according to the demands of educational institutions...

 publishing

Publishing

Publishing is the process of production and dissemination of literature or information—the activity of making information available to the general public...

 imprint

Imprint

In the publishing industry, an imprint can mean several different things:* As a piece of bibliographic information about a book, it refers to the name and address of the book's publisher and its date of publication as given at the foot or on the verso of its title page.* It can mean a trade name...

 owned by Pearson Education

Pearson Education

Pearson Education is an international educational publishing and technology company providing textbooks and other educational material, such as multimedia learning tools...

, which is a division of media conglomerate Pearson PLC

Pearson PLC

Pearson plc is a global media and education company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is both the largest education company and the largest book publisher in the world, with consumer imprints including Penguin, Dorling Kindersley and Ladybird...

. Silver Burdett was first formed as a company

Corporation

A corporation is created under the laws of a state as a separate legal entity that has privileges and liabilities that are distinct from those of its members. There are many different forms of corporations, most of which are used to conduct business. Early corporations were established by charter...

 in 1888 when Frank W. Burdett purchased a controlling interest in the textbook publishing company, Silver & Company. In 1962, Silver Burdett was acquired by Time, Inc., and it became the distributor of Time-Life Books to schools and libraries. In 1965 Silver Burdett became the first division of the General Learning Corporation, a muli-million collaboration between Time, Inc. and General Electric

General Electric

General Electric Company , or GE, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation incorporated in Schenectady, New York and headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States...

. Simon & Schuster

Simon & Schuster

Simon & Schuster, Inc., a division of CBS Corporation, is a publisher founded in New York City in 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. It is one of the four largest English-language publishers, alongside Random House, Penguin and HarperCollins...

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

Elementary school

An elementary school or primary school is an institution where children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as elementary or primary education. Elementary school is the preferred term in some countries, particularly those in North America, where the terms grade school and grammar...

 and high school

High school

High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....

) textbook publisher - which formed the imprint Silver Burdett Ginn. In 1998, Pearson PLC

Pearson PLC

Pearson plc is a global media and education company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is both the largest education company and the largest book publisher in the world, with consumer imprints including Penguin, Dorling Kindersley and Ladybird...

 acquired Simon & Schuster's educational businesses (which included Silver Burdett Ginn) from S&S parent Viacom, and created Pearson Education.