Osgood McIlvaine & Co
1870---JAMES R. OSGOOD & Co.[1]
This company evolved from Tichnor & Fields.
James R. Osgood, born 1836. Child prodigy...Latin at 3...entered college at 12.
Worked as a clerk for Tichnor & Fields. When Tichnor died int 1864, Osgood became a partner.
He befriended Charles Dickens during that author's American tour in 1867.
Osgood arranged to trade Dutton's Boston business for Tichnor & Fields' New York business.
Supervised book bindings...won praise for giving Tichnor and Fields high quality, artsy books.
Benjamin Tichnor, son of the founder, became partner in 1870. Fields retired. Osgood & Tichnor, with John Clark, bought his interests and renamed the company JAMES R. OSGOOD & CO.
They published Bret Harte's...Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Stories in 1870. Poems, 1871. Condensed Novels, 1871. Osgood advanced Harte $10,000 for future stories, but Harte had run dry and never wrote anything else.
1872, Horse Disease in Boston made shipment and travel difficult, then major fire destroyed warehouse. Financial problems mounted until authors, such as Longfellow, Byrant, and others, began complaining they were not getting their royalties. Osgood decided to sacrifice prices to generate needed cash flow, but then the Panic of 1873 struck. Sold Atlantic Magazine to Hurd & Houghton. Sold Our Folks to Scribner. Unable to pay Longfellow, lost him. Sold plates of Dicken's books and of Sir Walter Scott's books to Houghton. Sold plates of Thackeray books to Lee & Shepard.
1877 sold North American Review to Allen T. Rich. Same year published Rubiayat of Omar Khayyam, then sold it a week later to Houghton.
Finally, the partners dissolved the company in 1878. Meanwhile, Hurd and Houghton also broke up, so Osgood and Houghton teamed up to become HOUGHTON & OSGOOD & CO. But the firm had only one successful book: Howell's The Lady of Arrootook. Osgood and Houghton differed in temperment, argued, and dissolved the partnership in May 1880.
Osgood then formed a partnership with Colonel John Amnon & his own brother, Edward Osgood, which he named, again, JOHN R. OSGOOD & CO. Later, Thomas Tichnor rejoined him.
First books: Poems and Stories, Fritz-James O'Brien. Dreams of Fair Women, Tennyson. Verse, J.A. Symonds. Hibbert Lectures, Renan.
Osgood persuaded Mark Twain to help pay for the publication of The Prince and the Pauper.
Library of American Humor. Stolen White Elephant.
Benjamin Tichnor rejoined the firm and Colonel Amnon withdrew, leaving the company a partnership of two pairs of brothers: James & Edward Osgood and Thomas and Benjamin Tichnor.
James Osgood persuaded Walt Whitman to publish Leaves of Grass in 1881. The book infuriated censors: New England Society for the Suppression of Vice tried to bring charges against Osgood. Unfortunately, Osgood did not have the stomach for the fight and withdrew the book from the stores. He sold the plates to Rees, Walsh & Co. which re-issued the book and stood behind it in court. (See David McKay---1871)
Osgood published Henry James Portrait of Places and Daisy Miller (theater version). Joel Chandler Harris' Uncle Remus and Mingo.
May, 1885, creditors forced Osgood into bankruptcy. The Tichnor brothers formed a new partnership with George Godfrey who contributed $25,000 to saving the firm, but they did not allow the Osgood brothers to join.
Osgood went to work for Harpers.
With Harper's permission, in 1891 Osgood tried again with a new partner, Clarence McIlvaine. OSGOOD, MCILVAINE & CO.
Issued "Uniform Edition of Hardy" designed by Charles Ricketts whose Vale Press would become one of England's finest limited editions publisher.
Osgood issued Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbanvilles, his most successful publishing effort. Unfortunately, Osgood died in 1892 before the book hit the stores.
McIlvaine closed down the business in 1897.
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1882---J.S. OGILVIE & CO.
J.S. Ogilvie and Francis S. Street formed a partnershp (Street died in 1883) to issue paperback books called "The People's Library" in imitation of R.R. Donnelley and other publishers. The titles were priated, butthe practice was legal, if unethical, until copyright laws were changed in 1891.
Ogilvie, not known for high morals, also pirated the Merricam-Webster dictionary by issuing it under the name of "Webster's Imperial Dictionary" and selling it for half the Merriam price. Famous law-suites resulted, Ogilvie managed to win, and despite legal fees, turned a profit.
This success led him to imitate Rand McNally's "railroad literature", paperbound disposable soft-core pornography (for its day) and low-class reading peddled to passengers. WIth such titles as A Bad Boy's Diary and Blunders of a Bashful Man, Ogilvie was soon beating Rand McNally at their own game.
Two books, in particular, were "keepers": Ogilvie's Handy Book of Useful Information, which he wrote himself, and The Universal Assistant and Complete Mechanic. Both were huge best-sellers.
The erotica, however, led to Ogilvie to ruin. The Society for the Suppression of Vice raided the Ogilvie warehouse. According to legend, Ogilvie's brother, George, while attending a prayer meeting, suddenly "saw the light" and prayed for forgiveness for his brother's evil publications. In fact, J.S. and George had been feuding, and George reported his brother in the hope of taking sole control of the business. Evidently the scheme worked, because George was soon selling books similar to those that had been confiscated by the vice squad.
J.S. attempted a second publishing business, hired Walter Rowland as a salesman. Rowland left to establish his own publishing house in 1892
