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Publishing in Boston: Tracts to Textbooks

Editors Find Varied Tasks Require More Than a Desk and Telephone

Little, Brown is perhaps Boston's best example of a publisher seeking diversity. Besides editing general trade books, the firm prints juvenile books to reach the large number of children in the nations schools. Its law and medical texts have been consistent moneymakers, and the company has taken on the production and distribution functions of two of its sister publishing houses.

At 2 Park Street, around the corner from Little, Brown are the editorial offices of Houghton-Mifflin, whose trade division is headed by Paul Brooks '31. H. M. started as a book-store over a hundred years ago, joined with a printer, and, under a succession of names, has come down to the present as one of the most stable and respected publishers in the nation.

Part of this success has no doubt been due to the large scope of its textbook department. In addition, H. M. is the only Boston firm to own its own printing agency, the Riverside Press. Located on Memorial Drive in Cambridge, Riverside prints all of Houghton's books as well as a large number of books coming from other editorial desks. Lower on Beacon Hill and closer to the center of Boston than Little Brown, Houghton-Mifflin exudes a more worldly atmosphere than its consciously dignified rival.

The physical surroundings as well as the atmosphere of publishing change as one skirts the Common and walks to Ginn and Company in Park Square. Occupying almost a whole floor in one of the city's largest office buildings, Ginn is more a strictly commercial enterprise than its trade sisters. Consequently, it is better off financially. It publishes purely educational material, the bulk of which is directed toward elementary and secondary schools.

Since the primary emphasis of the grammar school text is to present expository material, much of which is totally unfamiliar to the student, textbook publishing demands a highly precise and clear style. It is the patient grinding of an educational tool. The material covered, too, must be such that it will fill a school's requirements in a determined amount of time. The process of preparing a text becomes a long one, often requiring the work of several years by one or more trained authors.

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Having produced a work of craftsmanship, the educational publisher becomes a powerful force in moulding outlook of a child. One series of books prepared by Ginn, D. C. Heath, or the somewhat smaller Allyn and Bacon can follow a child through as many as nine years of his education.

The trade publisher, the text book house, and the polemical press are all located in Boston. Their operations are on a small scale compared with the publishing activities of New York firms, but the influence, and often the quality, of their product is high.

People sometimes wonder why a publisher would want to be located in a city like Boston, notorious for its well-publicized censorship and stuffy morality. One editor summed up his answer by saying that in Boston he can take a long and objective view of the manuscript before him. "Away from the insularity of New York," he said, "the proximity to Madison Avenue's advertising agencies, and the 'faddishness' of the Big City, I can examine more carefully the ideas of an author. I can shut out the irrelavant and concentrate on what I am reading."Typical of an editor who must be both critic and businessman is Paul Brooks '31, trade publisher of Houghton-Mifflin.

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