Alfred Harcourt

Alfred Harcourt (New Paltz, New York, January 31, 1881 - June 20, 1954) was an American Publisher, Compiler and Founder of Harcourt, Brace & Howe in 1919.[1]

Harcourt was born in New Paltz, New York to a fruit farmer and attended the New Paltz Normal School. While at the normal school Harcourt became a member of the Delphic Fraternity.[2] An illness at age 9 lead to his love for books and reading.[3]

Harcourt graduated from Columbia College of Columbia University in 1904 with fellow grad Donald Brace, with whom he founded a publishing company.

He retired from his business due to poor health in 1941 and died in 1954 in Santa Barbara, California.[3]

Harcourt's second wife, Ellen Knowles, founded the Alfred Harcourt Foundation before her death in 1984.

References

  1. American Authors and Books: 1640 to Present Day Third Revised Edition, Crown Publishers, Inc., New York. (Original Editors W. J. Burke and Will D. Howe)
  2. In a Valley Fair: A History of the State University College of Education at New Paltz, by Elizabeth Lang and Robert Lang, New York, 1960.
  3. 3.0 3.1 Alfred Harcourt

The Alfred Harcourt Foundation homepage