Macmillan Publishers (United States)

Macmillan Publishers USA, also known as Macmillan Publishing, is a privately-held American publishing company owned by Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group. It has offices in 41 countries worldwide and operates in more than thirty others.

History

Macmillan USA under the Brett family

George Edward Brett opened the first Macmillan office in the United States in 1869 and Macmillan sold its U.S. operations to the Brett family, George Platt Brett, Sr. and George Platt Brett, Jr. in 1896, resulting in the creation of an American company, Macmillan Publishing. [ [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,888948,00.html?promoid=googlep Crofter's Crop - TIME ] ] Previously, Mr. Brett managed the U. S. subsidiary, which his grandfather George Edward Brett created in 1896. Even with the split of the American company from its parent company in England, George Brett, Jr. and Harold MacMillan remained close personal friends. [http://www.answers.com/topic/macmillan-inc?cat=biz-fin Macmillan: Information and Much More from Answers.com ] ]

George P. Brett, Jr. made the following comments in a letter dated 23 January 1947 to Daniel Macmillan about his family's devotion to the American Publishing Industry:

For the record my grandfather was employed by Macmillan's of England as a salesman. He came to the United States with his family in the service of Macmillan's of England and built up a business of approximately $50,000 before he died. He was succeeded . . . by my father, who eventually incorporated The Macmillan Company of New York and built up business of about $9,000,000. I succeeded my father, and we currently doing a business of approximately $12,000,000. So then, the name of Brett and the name of Macmillan have been and are synonymous in the United States.

Under the leadership of the Brett family, MacMillan served as the publisher of American authors, Winston Churchill [cite book |title=Jack London: A Life |firstAlex |last=Kershaw |page= 110 |publisher=St. Martin's Griffin | year=1999 | isbn= 031219904X] , Margaret Mitchell, who wrote "Gone with the Wind" [cite news |first= Wolfgang|last= Saxon |title= George P. Brett is dead at 91; Headed Macmillan Company|url= http://select.nytimes.com/search/restricted/article?res=F30A14F6395F0C768DDDAB0894DC484D81|publisher= New York Times|date= February 15, 1984|accessdate=2008-04-19 ] , and Jack London [ [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036051/fullcredits Jack London (1943) - Full cast and crew ] ] , author of "White Fang" and "Call of the Wild".

The Bretts remained in control of the American offices of Macmillan from its creation in 1869 to the early 1960s, “a span matched by few other families in the history of United States business.”

Merger with Crowell Collier

Through its merger with Crowell Collier and other acquisitions, the U.S. publisher became a media giant in its own right, as Macmillan, Inc. It was acquired by the controversial British tycoon Robert Maxwell in 1989 and eventually dismembered in the wake of Maxwell's death (1991) and the subsequent bankruptcy proceedings.

Macmillan since 1998

Pearson acquired the Macmillan name in America since 1998, following its purchase of the Simon & Schuster educational and professional group (which included various Macmillan properties). ["Publishers Weekly", http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6488163.html] Holtzbrinck purchased it from them in 2001. ["Bookseller", [http://www.allbusiness.com/retail-trade/miscellaneous-retail-miscellaneous/4655423-1.html] ] . However, McGraw-Hill continues to market its pre-kindergarten through elementary school titles under its Macmillan/McGraw-Hill brand. U.S. operations of Georg von Holtzbrinck are now known as [http://www.macmillan.com Macmillan] .

Authors

Publishers

*George Edward Brett

*George Platt Brett, Sr.

*George Platt Brett, Jr.

ee also

Richard M. Brett
Macmillan Publishers

References

Additional Resources

MacMillan A Publishing Tradition by Elizabeth James ISBN 0-333-73517-X