Harcourt was the son of Gertrude M. Elting and Charles M. Harcourt. Alfred was born in
New Paltz, New York, to a fruit farmer and attended the
New Paltz Normal School. While at the
normal school Harcourt became a member of the
Delphic Fraternity. An illness at age 9 led to his love for books and reading. After his studies at New Paltz, Harcourt attended
Columbia University where he was an editor of the student newspaper, the
Columbia Spectator. Harcourt graduated from
Columbia College of Columbia University in 1904 with fellow grad
Donald Brace. The two joined
Henry Holt and Company before founding
Harcourt Brace and Company in 1919. Alfred Harcourt represented some of the most recognized writers of the time such as
Robert Frost Sinclair Lewis,
Carl Sandburg,
George Orwell,
Virginia Woolf,
T.S. Eliot, and
E.E. Cummings. Harcourt retired from his business due to poor health in 1942 and died in 1954 in
Santa Barbara, California. Harcourt's second wife, Ellen Knowles, founded the Alfred Harcourt Foundation in 1962. She died in 1984. ==References==