- From the early 1930s Harcourt, Brace printed "First edition" on the copyright page of first printings, or "First American edition" for books first published abroad, and normally dropped the statement from later printings.
Publisher
Harcourt, Brace
Harcourt, Brace and Company was the New York publisher founded in 1919 by Alfred Harcourt and Donald Brace, first publisher of Main Street, All the King's Men and Wise Blood.
- Editions tracked
- 174
- First editions
- 113
- Books
- 174
- Years
- 1920 to 2000
Harcourt, Brace is a publisher active from 1920. We track 174 editions it published between 1920 and 2000, 113 of them first editions across 174 books. How Harcourt, Brace marked its first editions is set out below, with a checker for the year on your title page.
About Harcourt, Brace
Harcourt, Brace and Company was the New York publishing house founded in 1919 by Alfred Harcourt and Donald Brace, which later traded as Harcourt Brace Jovanovich before being absorbed by Houghton Mifflin in 2007.
The firm opened as Harcourt, Brace and Howe, with the editor Will David Howe as third partner, and took the name Harcourt, Brace and Company after Howe left in 1921. Among its earliest books was Sinclair Lewis's Main Street, published in 1920 under the Harcourt, Brace and Howe imprint. Its authors included Virginia Woolf, T. S. Eliot, George Orwell and Walter Lippmann. Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men appeared under its imprint in 1946 and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1947, and Flannery O'Connor's first novel, Wise Blood, followed on 15 May 1952.
In 1960 the company merged with World Book Company to become Harcourt, Brace and World, and in 1970 it was renamed Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. It was based in New York until 1982 and was later absorbed by Houghton Mifflin, which bought Harcourt in 2007.
Holding a copy? The first edition checker shows Harcourt, Brace's practice for the year on your title page.
Identification
How to identify Harcourt, Brace first editions
Authors
Books
Published by Harcourt, Brace
Frequently asked questions
How do I identify a Harcourt, Brace first edition?
- From the early 1930s Harcourt, Brace printed "First edition" on the copyright page of first printings, or "First American edition" for books first published abroad, and normally dropped the statement from later printings.
How many Harcourt, Brace books does MyVolumes track?
We track 174 editions published by Harcourt, Brace, 113 of them first editions, across 174 books.
Where these facts come from
- Harcourt (publisher), Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
- Main Street (novel), Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
- All the King's Men, Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
- Wise Blood, Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
- First-Edition: Identification by Publisher (Allen and Patricia Ahearn), ILAB, 2010 (ilab.org)
- First Editions of Today and How to Tell Them (3rd edn), H. S. Boutell, Internet Archive, 1949 (archive.org)
Every fact on this page was checked against the sources listed. Checked 17 October 2026. Reviewed by Harriet Ellis; read how we check facts.