Houghton Mifflin Company traces its roots to 1832, when William Ticknor and James Fields joined forces as publishers and booksellers. Their Boston shop, the Old Corner Bookstore, became a meeting place for the most influential American writers of the nineteenth century. This was a golden era in American letters, and the firm of Ticknor & Fields published Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, John Greenleaf Whittier, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. When Ticknor died, James Osgood took over the company, and in the late 1870s this organization merged with that of Henry Houghton (who had established the Riverside Press in 1852), becoming Houghton, Mifflin & Company in 1880.
Today the Trade and Reference Division of Houghton Mifflin publishes approximately four hundred books a year, including adult trade books, Mariner trade paperbacks, the American Heritage® dictionaries, Peterson Field Guides®, Taylor Guides, Kingfisher Books, the Best American Series, Houghton Mifflin Children's Books, Walter Lorraine Books, and Clarion Books.
The adult trade group publishes fiction and nonfiction of the highest quality, intended for a general audience. As part of a major educational publisher, we are dedicated to publishing works that will become a part of the canon taught in schools and colleges in the future. Our list builds on the traditional strengths for which Houghton Mifflin has won its reputation as one of the most prestigious houses in the industry. In nonfiction, the roster includes the finest writers in such categories as history, natural history, biography and memoir, science, and economics, including such preeminent figures as Winston Churchill, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., and John Kenneth Galbraith. We also have a proud tradition of publishing works of social criticism that have spoken with great power through the generations, including Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, James Agee and Walker Evans's Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation, the works of Jane Goodall, and, recently, the best-selling The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, and How Doctors Think by Dr. Jerome Groopman.
On the literary side, Houghton Mifflin launched the careers of such writers as Willa Cather, A. B. Guthrie, Jr., Robert Penn Warren, Ann Petry, Elizabeth Bishop, Philip Roth, Willie Morris, and Robert Stone. Our fiction list today also includes such distinguished names as Tim O'Brien, John Edgar Wideman, and Edna O'Brien.
Houghton Mifflin's commitment to poetry also spans well over one hundred years. Our current roster of poets includes the current poet laureate Donald Hall, 2007 Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry: Natasha Trethewey, Galway Kinnell, Grace Schulman, Alan Shapiro, Michael Collier, and Glyn Maxwell, among others.
In recent years our books have also won such major awards as the Pulitzer Prize, PEN/Faulkner Award, the PEN/Hemingway Award, the Lyndhurst Prize, and the Bancroft Prize in American history and diplomacy.
Houghton Mifflin Company began publishing books for young readers in 1937 with a list of four titles, including Choo Choo
by Virginia Lee Burton. Houghton Mifflin Children's Books now publishes more than one hundred titles each year,
and we are frequently lauded for the depth and breadth of our backlist and are recognized for encouraging and cultivating
new talent. Houghton Mifflin Children's Books publishes some of the most distinguished creators in the field of children's
literature, including luminaries such as H. A. and Margret Rey, Virginia Lee Burton, Bill Peet, Holling C. Holling, Scott O'Dell,
and James Marshall, and contemporary authors and illustrators including Steve Jenkins, D. B. Johnson, Toni Morrison, Marilyn Nelson,
Eric Schlosser, and Chris Van Allsburg, among others. Houghton Mifflin is home to some of the best-loved children's book characters,
including the incorrigible Curious George, Lyle the Crocodile, George and Martha, and Tacky the Penguin. Over the years,
Houghton Mifflin Children's Books authors and illustrators have been awarded numerous Caldecott, Newbery, and Sibert Medals
and Honors, among many other accolades.
Walter Lorraine Books, an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Company, was formed in 1995. In addition to developing new talent, Walter Lorraine Books publishes such award-winning authors and illustrators as Caldecott medalist David Macaulay, Newbery medalist Lois Lowry, Caldecott medalist Allen Say, Helen Lester, Lynn Munsinger, Arthur Geisert, Bernard Waber, Susan Meddaugh, and many others. The Graphia imprint was launched in 2004 and publishes both paperback originals and reprints
Clarion Books began publishing children's fiction and picture books in 1965 with a list of six titles. In 1979 it was bought by and became an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Company. Since then the list has expanded to nearly sixty titles a year and includes nonfiction as well as fiction and picture books. In 1987 Clarion received its first Newbery Honor Medal, for On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer, and in 1988 it had its first Newbery Medal winner, Lincoln: A Photobiography by Russell Freedman. Since then Clarion books have received children's book honors and awards nearly every year. Clarion's award-winning titles include The Three Pigs (2002 Caldecott Medal), Tuesday (Caldecott Medal), Sector 7 (Caldecott Honor), and the 2007 Caldecott Medal Winner Flotsam, all by David Wiesner; A Single Shard (2002 Newbery Medal) by Linda Sue Park; The Midwife's Apprentice (Newbery Medal) and Catherine Called Birdy (Newbery Honor), both by Karen Cushman; Sir Walter Ralegh and The Quest for El Dorado (the inaugural Sibert Medal) by Marc Aronson; and My Rows and Piles of Coins (Coretta Scott King Honor for illustration) by Tololwa M. Mollel, illustrated by E. B. Lewis.
Kingfisher is an award-winning publisher of nonfiction and fiction for children of all ages. Known around the world for its informative and engaging reference books, activity books, and early learning books, Kingfisher also receives widespread acclaim for its classic anthologies, original picture books, and New York Times nonfiction titles.
Houghton Mifflin has two distribution clients, Beacon Press and the Old Farmer's Almanac. Founded in 1854, Beacon Press is a nonprofit, independent publisher of serious nonfiction books and high-quality literary works that seeks to change the way readers think about fundamental issues. Beacon promotes such values as freedom of speech and thought, the importance of racial and ethnic diversity, and respect for our environment. The Old Farmer's Almanac—the oldest continuously published periodical in North America—has provided useful information for people in all walks of life since 1792. Published each September, the Almanac features wit, wisdom, and uncommonly accurate weather forecasts.
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