Ticknor and Fields
Encyclopedia
Ticknor and Fields was an American publishing company based in Boston, Massachusetts.
located on Washington and School Streets in Boston, Massachusetts. A year later Allen withdrew from the firm and Ticknor continued business under William D. Ticknor and Company. When John Reed and James Thomas Fields
became partners in 1845 the imprint was changed to Ticknor, Reed, and Fields. When Reed retired in 1854 the imprint became the well-known Ticknor and Fields.
During these years the firm purchased and printed the Atlantic Monthly and the North American Review
. Also in 1842 Ticknor became the first American publisher to pay foreign writers for their works, beginning with a check to Tennyson. These were prosperous years for the firm and they compiled an impressive list of authors, Horatio Alger, Lydia Maria Child, Charles Dickens
, Ralph Waldo Emerson
, Nathaniel Hawthorne
, Oliver Wendell Holmes
, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
, James Russell Lowell
, Harriet Beecher Stowe
, Alfred Tennyson, Henry David Thoreau
, Mark Twain
, and John Greenleaf Whittier
. The Old Corner Bookstore
had become the publishing house and meeting place for these authors. Many writers visited many times a week; George William Curtis
referred to it as "the hub of the Hub", referencing Boston's nickname, and that it "compelled the world to acknowledge that there was an American literature".
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.
. 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." Ticknor died on the morning of April 10, 1864.
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. 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, and Co. 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, 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 was renamed James R. Osgood & Co.
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
.
became a partner in the deal. The latter would become Houghton, Mifflin, and Co. in 1880, the same year Osgood formed a second J.R. Osgood and Co, which was taken over by Benjamin Holt Ticknor, in 1885 under the name Ticknor and Company. Ticknor and Company operated until 1889 when it became part of Houghton, Mifflin, and Co. In 1908 the name was changed to Houghton Mifflin Company. Ticknor and Fields was sometimes used as an imprint of Houghton Mifflin in the 20th century.
Early years
In 1832 William Davis Ticknor and John Allen began a small publishing business which operated out of the Old Corner BookstoreOld Corner Bookstore
The Old Corner Bookstore is a historic building in the center of Boston, Massachusetts. It is located at the corner of Washington and School Streets, along the Freedom Trail of revolutionary and early American historic sites.-History:...
located on Washington and School Streets in Boston, Massachusetts. A year later Allen withdrew from the firm and Ticknor continued business under William D. Ticknor and Company. When John Reed and James Thomas Fields
James Thomas Fields
James Thomas Fields was an American publisher, editor, and poet.-Early life and family:He was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire on December 31, 1817 and named James Field; the family later added the "s". His father was a sea captain and died before Fields was three...
became partners in 1845 the imprint was changed to Ticknor, Reed, and Fields. When Reed retired in 1854 the imprint became the well-known Ticknor and Fields.
During these years the firm purchased and printed the Atlantic Monthly and the North American Review
North American Review
The North American Review was the first literary magazine in the United States. Founded in Boston in 1815 by journalist Nathan Hale and others, it was published continuously until 1940, when publication was suspended due to J. H. Smyth, who had purchased the magazine, being unmasked as a Japanese...
. Also in 1842 Ticknor became the first American publisher to pay foreign writers for their works, beginning with a check to Tennyson. These were prosperous years for the firm and they compiled an impressive list of authors, Horatio Alger, Lydia Maria Child, Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
, Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet, who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century...
, Nathaniel Hawthorne
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American novelist and short story writer.Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in 1804 in the city of Salem, Massachusetts to Nathaniel Hathorne and the former Elizabeth Clarke Manning. His ancestors include John Hathorne, a judge during the Salem Witch Trials...
, Oliver Wendell Holmes
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. was an American physician, professor, lecturer, and author. Regarded by his peers as one of the best writers of the 19th century, he is considered a member of the Fireside Poets. His most famous prose works are the "Breakfast-Table" series, which began with The Autocrat...
, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was an American poet and educator whose works include "Paul Revere's Ride", The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline...
, James Russell Lowell
James Russell Lowell
James Russell Lowell 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 who rivaled the popularity of British poets...
, Harriet Beecher Stowe
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Harriet Beecher Stowe was an American abolitionist and author. Her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin was a depiction of life for African-Americans under slavery; it reached millions as a novel and play, and became influential in the United States and United Kingdom...
, Alfred Tennyson, Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau was an American author, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, historian, and leading transcendentalist...
, Mark Twain
Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist...
, and John Greenleaf Whittier
John Greenleaf Whittier
John Greenleaf Whittier was an influential American Quaker poet and ardent advocate of the abolition of slavery in the United States. He is usually listed as one of the Fireside Poets...
. The Old Corner Bookstore
Old Corner Bookstore
The Old Corner Bookstore is a historic building in the center of Boston, Massachusetts. It is located at the corner of Washington and School Streets, along the Freedom Trail of revolutionary and early American historic sites.-History:...
had become the publishing house and meeting place for these authors. Many writers visited many times a week; George William Curtis
George William Curtis
George William Curtis was an American writer and public speaker, born in Providence, Rhode Island, of old New England stock.-Biography:...
referred to it as "the hub of the Hub", referencing Boston's nickname, and that it "compelled the world to acknowledge that there was an American literature".
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
Henry Oscar Houghton
Henry Oscar Houghton was an American publisher, co-founder of Houghton Mifflin, and a mayor of Cambridge, Massachusetts.-Biography:...
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. During the trip, Ticknor became ill with pneumoniaPneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
. 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." Ticknor died on the morning of April 10, 1864.
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
Old Corner Bookstore
The Old Corner Bookstore is a historic building in the center of Boston, Massachusetts. It is located at the corner of Washington and School Streets, along the Freedom Trail of revolutionary and early American historic sites.-History:...
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. 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, and Co. 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, 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 was renamed James R. Osgood & Co.
Osgood, who considered Fields a mentor, attracted substantial new talent and published new works by Thomas Bailey Aldrich
Thomas Bailey Aldrich
Thomas Bailey Aldrich was an American poet, novelist, travel writer and editor.-Early life and education:...
, Bret Harte
Bret Harte
Francis Bret Harte was an American author and poet, best remembered for his accounts of pioneering life in California.- Life and career :...
, William Dean Howells
William Dean Howells
William Dean Howells was an American realist author and literary critic. Nicknamed "The Dean of American Letters", he was particularly known for his tenure as editor of the Atlantic Monthly as well as his own writings, including the Christmas story "Christmas Every Day" and the novel The Rise of...
, Henry James
Henry James
Henry James, OM was an American-born writer, regarded as one of the key figures of 19th-century literary realism. He was the son of Henry James, Sr., a clergyman, and the brother of philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James....
, Sarah Orne Jewett
Sarah Orne Jewett
Sarah Orne Jewett was an American novelist and short story writer, best known for her local color works set in or near South Berwick, Maine, on the border of New Hampshire, which in her day was a declining New England seaport.-Biography:Jewett's family had been residents of New England for many...
, Lucy Larcom
Lucy Larcom
Lucy Larcom was an American poet.-Biography:Larcom was born in Beverly, Massachusetts, in 1824, the ninth of ten children and died in Boston in 1893. She left Beverly, Massachusetts, in 1835 to work cotton mills in Lowell from the ages of 11 to 21. As a mill girl she hoped to earn some extra...
, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward
Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward
Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward, born Mary Gray Phelps, was an American author and an early advocate of clothing reform for women, urging them to burn their corsets.- Biography :...
, Celia Thaxter
Celia Thaxter
Celia Laighton Thaxter was an American writer of poetry and stories. She was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.-Life and work:...
, and Charles Dudley Warner
Charles Dudley Warner
Charles Dudley Warner was an American essayist, novelist, and friend of Mark Twain, with whom he co-authored the novel The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today.-Biography:...
.
Final years
The firm invested in heliotype printing technology, various periodicals, and established a New York office. Within a few years, the company was in financial difficulty and Osgood and B. H. Ticknor were forced to sell off various assets, including many stereotype plates. By December 1878, they were forced to merge with Hurd & Houghton and became Houghton, Osgood, and Co. Henry Oscar HoughtonHenry Oscar Houghton
Henry Oscar Houghton was an American publisher, co-founder of Houghton Mifflin, and a mayor of Cambridge, Massachusetts.-Biography:...
became a partner in the deal. The latter would become Houghton, Mifflin, and Co. in 1880, the same year Osgood formed a second J.R. Osgood and Co, which was taken over by Benjamin Holt Ticknor, in 1885 under the name Ticknor and Company. Ticknor and Company operated until 1889 when it became part of Houghton, Mifflin, and Co. In 1908 the name was changed to Houghton Mifflin Company. Ticknor and Fields was sometimes used as an imprint of Houghton Mifflin in the 20th century.
External links
- National Biography Online, retrieved June 25, 2008
- The LUCILE Project, retrieved June 25, 2008