Scott, Foresman

About Scott, Foresman

Scott, Foresman and Company was a Chicago educational publisher, incorporated under that name in 1896 by Erastus Howard Scott with Hugh and William Foresman, best remembered for the "Dick and Jane" reading primers.

Its roots go back to 1889, when Scott, a former minister who had come to Chicago in 1887 to enter publishing, went into partnership with C. J. Albert. The firm's first publication was a high school Latin textbook, and it won a Kansas state adoption contract in 1897.

Dick and Jane first appeared in 1930 in the Elson-Gray readers. Zerna Sharp, a former teacher who worked as a Scott Foresman reading consultant, created and named the characters, and William S. Gray worked with her on the books. At their 1950s peak the readers were used by about 80 per cent of American first-grade pupils, and they sold until 1973 as criticism of the look-say method grew.

The company was based in Chicago until 1966, when it moved to a new campus at 1900 East Lake Avenue in Glenview, Illinois. Time Inc. bought it in 1986, it later passed to HarperCollins, and in 1996 it went to Pearson. Its school titles are now owned by Savvas Learning Company, and Scott Foresman survives only as a trademark. The Glenview campus has stood empty since 2020.