New York publisher formed by a 1960 merger, issuer of Cat's Cradle and The Bluest Eye, whose name became a textbook brand after 1985. Trade firsts from the 1970s state First Edition, later with a number line.
Holt, Rinehart and Winston is a publisher based in New York, founded in 1960. We track 124 editions it published between 1947 and 2006, 93 of them first editions across 120 books. How Holt, Rinehart and Winston marked its first editions is set out below, with a checker for the year on your title page.
About Holt, Rinehart and Winston
Holt, Rinehart and Winston (HRW) came into being in New York in 1960, when Henry Holt and Company merged with Rinehart & Company and the John C. Winston Company of Philadelphia. Holt was the company that survived the merger.
All three firms had long pedigrees. Henry Holt and Frederick Leypoldt set up the oldest of them in 1866. Rinehart & Company traced its line to Farrar & Rinehart, established in 1929, and Winston dated from 1884. CBS bought HRW in 1967.
In its trade years HRW published general books as well as its school list, including Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle (1963), Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye (1970) and Robert A. Heinlein's Friday (1982).
The group was split in 1985. The Holt name and the retail publishing side went to the Georg von Holtzbrinck group and continued as Henry Holt and Company, which now sits within Macmillan in the United States. The school side kept the HRW name and logo and went to Harcourt. Under Harcourt it became part of Reed Elsevier's Harcourt Education in 2001, and in 2007 Houghton Mifflin bought it and merged it with McDougal Littell to create Holt McDougal, a high school textbook publisher. A book carrying the HRW name from after 1985 is therefore almost always a textbook.
Holding a copy? The first edition checker shows Holt, Rinehart and Winston's practice for the year on your title page.
Identification
How to identify Holt, Rinehart and Winston first editions
What to look for
Before 1960
Rinehart & Company, one of the three founding firms, marked first printings with its circled R colophon on the copyright page.
1960s
1970s
First printings carry the words "First Edition" on the copyright page, and a number line came into use during the decade.
1980s
Trade firsts carry a "First Edition" statement with a full number line that includes 1; the lowest number gives the printing.
From 1985
After the 1985 split the trade list continued under Henry Holt and Company, and the HRW name stayed with the school business. HRW books from this point are textbooks, not collectable trade firsts.
How do I identify a Holt, Rinehart and Winston first edition?
Before 1960 - Rinehart & Company, one of the three founding firms, marked first printings with its circled R colophon on the copyright page. 1960s 1970s - First printings carry the words "First Edition" on the copyright page, and a number line came into use during the decade. 1980s - Trade firsts carry a "First Edition" statement with a full number line that includes 1; the lowest number gives the
How many Holt, Rinehart and Winston books does MyVolumes track?
We track 124 editions published by Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 93 of them first editions, across 120 books.
Sources
Where these facts come from
First Edition Identification by Publisher (Allen and Patricia Ahearn), ILAB, 2010 (ilab.org)
