Little, Brown & Company, Inc
—This business began as a retail store started by Ebenezer Battelle in Boston in 1784. Four years later the concern issued its first book and became a publisher in the strict sense of the word. From 1784 to 1913 there was a succession of partners entering and leaving the organization, and in the early days the name of the house was changed frequently, according to the changes in partnership. The name of Little & Brown was adopted in 1830, when James Brown and Charles C. Little owned the business. James Brown may more truly be called the founder of the present house than any other one man. In 1898 Little, Brown & Company absorbed the successful publishing firm of Roberts Brothers of Boston, thereby securing a large miscellaneous line, including the works of Louisa Alcott. In 1913 the house was incorporated as Little, Brown & Company, Inc., without change in the personnel of the organization.
The present educational enterprise of this company was started in May, 1904, and the first two schoolbooks of the present list were a school edition of The Man Without a Country, and the series known as the Wide Awake Readers. Little, Brown & Company are known as the publishers of Bancroft’s History of the United States, also of Daniel Webster’s works.