A·C·McClurg published W. E. B. Du Bois and Edgar Rice Burroughs, survived two fires, and shaped a century of American reading before it closed in 1967.
We have taken the name up again, not as a museum piece, but as a working house. The craft is the one the name was built on. What has changed is who can reach it.
- 1844
A Chicago bookshop
The house opens in Chicago as W. W. Barlow & Co., later trading as S. C. Griggs & Co.
- 1859
Alexander C. McClurg
A former law student joins the firm, and returns from the Civil War a junior partner.
- 1871
The Great Chicago Fire
The building burns. The house rebuilds and continues as Jansen, McClurg & Co.
- 1880
The Dial
The magazine is revived as a platform of politics and literary criticism.
- 1887
A·C·McClurg & Co
McClurg becomes senior partner and the house takes his name.
- 1899
Fire, again
A second fire destroys the premises. McClurg finances the rebuilding.
- 1901
The name outlives the man
Alexander McClurg dies. The house keeps his name on the door.
- 1903
The Souls of Black Folk
The house publishes W. E. B. Du Bois, a book that changed American letters.
- 1913
Tarzan of the Apes
The first Edgar Rice Burroughs novel is published. The Dial is sold three years later.
- 1923
Wholesaling
Publishing gives way to the wholesale book trade.
- 1967
The house closes
After 123 years, A·C·McClurg & Co ceases operations.
- Today
The story continues
The house reopens, the same standard of bookmaking, now available directly to authors.
Or call +1-312-680-2296.
Between 1844 and 1967, A·C·McClurg published these writers, several of them before anyone else would. The list is the argument.
W. E. B.Du Bois
1868–1963
The Souls of Black Folk, 1903, published when no house was obliged to.
Edgar RiceBurroughs
1875–195018 titles with the house
Tarzan of the Apes and A Princess of Mars, after other publishers passed.
RandallParrish
1858–192319 titles with the house
Adventure novelist and historian, more titles with the house than anyone.
ZaneGrey
1872–1939
Early Western fiction, before the genre had a name worth selling.
Mary HartwellCatherwood
1847–1902
Midwestern historical novelist and short-story writer.
Thomson JayHudson
1834–19037 titles with the house
Wrote on psychic phenomena and mental medicine for a general readership.
Clarence E.Mulford
1883–19566 titles with the house
Created Hopalong Cassidy, who outlived every format he was written for.
Cyrus TownsendBrady
1861–19204 titles with the house
Clergyman and prolific novelist of sea stories and American history.
Charles FletcherLummis
1859–19284 titles with the house
Journalist and Southwest historian who walked to California to report it.