World Book Company (1905) The first-created component of what would eventually become Harcourt was the World Book Company (unrelated to the
Chicago-based
World Book, Inc. publisher of reference works), which opened its first office in
Manila in 1905 and published English-language educational materials for schools in the
Philippines. The company later moved to New York City, where it became a test publisher. Much of the company's success was based on the work of
Arthur S. Otis. He was best known for the intelligence tests he developed for the U.S. Army. Millions of World War I draftees took
Otis tests. World Book Company became the first publisher of group-administered tests measuring mental ability when it published Otis's Group Intelligence Scale in 1918. Otis became a World Book employee in 1921. By 1960, World Book had a portfolio of educational tests, including the
Stanford Achievement Test (1923), the Metropolitan Achievement Test (1932) and the Otis Mental Ability Test (1936).
Harcourt, Brace & Howe (1919) and Harcourt, Brace & Company Alfred Harcourt and
Donald Brace were friends at
Columbia College of Columbia University in New York, from which they both graduated in 1904. The two worked for
Henry Holt and Company before founding their own publishing company in 1919,
Harcourt, Brace & Howe, along with editor
Will David Howe. After Howe left the company in 1921, the partners changed the name to
Harcourt, Brace & Company. They published the works of a number of writers who became internationally renowned, including
Walter Lippmann,
Sinclair Lewis,
Virginia Woolf,
T. S. Eliot,
James Thurber,
George Orwell,
Valentine Davies and
Robert Penn Warren. Firms acquired by Harcourt, Brace include Brewer, Warren and Putnam; and
Reynal & Hitchcock.
Harcourt, Brace & World (1960) and successors Harcourt, Brace & World only existed between 1960 and 1970. The name Harcourt, Brace & World was used on books that were copyrighted as early as 1931, if not before. By 1960, Harcourt Brace led the market in high school textbook publishing, but had little presence in the elementary school market. That year,
William Jovanovich, who had become president of the company in 1954,
took the company public and merged Harcourt Brace & Company with World Book Company to create
Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc. This strategic action improved the position of Harcourt Brace because World Book was an established elementary textbook publisher and test publisher. In 1968, Harcourt, Brace & World entered the trade magazine business by acquiring Ojibway Press. In 1969, Harcourt acquired
Academic Press.
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich In 1970, the company was known as
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich (HBJ), with
William Jovanovich as chairman. That same year, the company acquired
The Psychological Corporation. Under Jovanovich's leadership, the company diversified into non-publishing businesses such as insurance and business consulting. It also bought several theme parks—including
SeaWorld, which it acquired in 1976 for $46 million. Harcourt also published mass-market paperback books with
Pyramid Books, which it bought out in 1974 and renamed
Jove Books. It sold this section to the
Putnam Berkley Group in 1979. In 1985, HBJ merged in a stock trade with
Cypress Gardens.
Jim Monaghan sold
Circus World for stock to Harcourt Brace Jovanovich on Tuesday, May 10, 1986, at 3:50 a.m. HBJ had a new idea for the park, and closed the park at opening time that day to rebuild it into
Boardwalk and Baseball. HBJ Park Group opened SeaWorld San Antonio in 1988. In 1987, days after a failed attempted takeover of HBJ, British publisher Robert Maxwell sued to stop the company from carrying out a $3 billion recapitalization plan. Eventually, the company divested its trade magazines to the buyout firm
Kidder, Peabody & Co. in 1987. The company divested its theme park division in 1989 to
Busch Entertainment for $1.1 billion, when they expected $1.5 billion, to meet its large debt. In December 1989, Peter Jovanovich became chief executive officer of the company, replacing Ralph D. Caulo, who left after the theme park sale.
Harcourt General and Harcourt, Inc. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich was acquired in 1991 for more than $1.5 billion by
General Cinema Corporation, a diversified company that operated a national chain of movie theaters, and retailers such as
Neiman Marcus and
Bergdorf Goodman. In 1993 General Cinema Corporation renamed itself
Harcourt General and restored the 1921 to 1960 name "Harcourt, Brace & Company" to its publishing division as
Harcourt Brace (no comma). At the end of the year it divested its cinema division. In 1994, Harcourt General acquired the religious imprint Brown-ROA from William C. Brown Company, a division of
Times Mirror Company. It was renamed Harcourt Religion in 1999. In 1995, Harcourt General acquired Assessment Systems, Inc., a professional test company. In 1997, Harcourt General acquired
National Education and Steck-Vaughn. In 1998, Harcourt General acquired
Morgan Kaufmann Publishers. In 1999, Harcourt General divested its retail division and shortened the publishing division name to
Harcourt, Inc. Reed Elsevier Group plc In 2001, the Anglo-Dutch publishing company
Reed Elsevier acquired Harcourt, Inc. Harcourt Trade Publishers was a member of the
Reed Elsevier Group plc (NYSE: RUK and ENL), a publisher and information provider operating in four global industry sectors: science and medical, legal, education, and business. As part of the deal, Reed Elsevier sold Harcourt's higher education division, and the NETglobal (formerly National Education Training), Assessment Systems, Inc (ASI), and Drake Beam Morin businesses to
Thomson Corporation. Several parts of Harcourt (Academic Press, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, and Saunders) were transferred to Elsevier and several parts of Elsevier (including
Greenwood Publishing Group) were transferred to Harcourt Education. In 2004, Harcourt acquired Saxon Publishers, publishers of
Saxon math materials. Reed Elsevier then comprised the following divisions:
Elsevier (science and medical),
LexisNexis (legal), Harcourt Education (education), and
Reed Business (business).
Houghton Mifflin Riverdeep Group On February 15, 2007, Reed Elsevier announced its intention to sell its education arm, Harcourt Education, of which Harcourt Trade Publishers was a part. According to Reed Chief Executive Crispin Davis, "This is essentially a strategic decision that we want to focus more sharply on our three existing businesses ... with better growth rates." On July 17, 2007, Reed Elsevier announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement to sell its Harcourt U.S. Schools Education business, including Harcourt Trade Publishers, to Houghton Mifflin Riverdeep Group. The merger was completed and the Harcourt name ceased being used separately in 2008. Harcourt Religion was sold to
Our Sunday Visitor in 2009. Houghton Mifflin Company acquired Harcourt in 2007, combining the Houghton Mifflin and Harcourt names to form
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ==Products==