Crowell-Collier Publishing Company
Crowell-Collier Publishing Company was an American publisher that owned the popular magazines Collier's, Woman's Home Companion and The American Magazine. Crowell's subsidiary, P.F. Collier and Son, published Collier's Encyclopedia, the Harvard Classics, and general interest books.
| Status | defunct (1973) |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1877 |
| Founder | Phineas P. Mast |
| Successor | Macmillan Inc. |
| Country of origin | U.S. |
| Headquarters location | Springfield, Ohio, later New York City |
| Distribution | National |
| Publication types | Magazines, Reference books |
| Owner(s) | P. P. Mast (1877–1898) John S. Crowell (1898–1906) Joseph P. Knapp and George Hazen (1906–?) Armand G. Erpf (1956–?) |
The company was founded by agricultural tool manufacturer P. P. Mast with a single magazine, Farm & Fireside (later the Country Home) to sell farm tools and implements in 1877 in Springfield, Ohio. By 1881, Mast had relinquished control to John S. Crowell who expanded their company by purchasing Home Companion (later changing the name to Woman's Home Companion).
After P. P. Mast's death in 1898, Crowell obtained control of the company and established it as the Crowell Publishing Company. Crowell Publishing expanded their magazine holdings with The American Magazine in 1911 and the weekly Collier's in 1919. At one point Collier's weekly had over 1.25 million subscribers.
After shuttering the magazine operations in the 1956, the Crowell-Collier Publishing Company merged with the American Macmillan Company in 1960 and became a large educational company with subsidiaries for books, textbooks, correspondence schools and other educational tools and materials. The company officially changed its name to Macmillan, Inc. in 1973.