r literary work.

As has been seen, Mr. Winthrop B. Smith was for a few years, while the
business was still in its infancy, the sole owner and the manager of
every part of his business. Mr. Pinneo contributed aid from 1843 to
1856; but even before his work was finished Mr. O.J. Wilson's skill
became recognized and his mind was dominant in literary matters so long
as he remained a partner--until 1877. But in the meantime he had
carefully trained a successor in the editorial work, and from 1877 until
1907 the responsibility fell upon him.

[New Competitors]

The story of the revisions of 1843 and 1853 has been told. The books
were apparently in satisfactory use in a large part of the West; but
about 1874 the firm thought it wise to exploit a new series. At its
request Mr. Thomas W. Harvey prepared a series consisting of five books.
This series was published in 1875; but the experience of a few years
with the Harvey Readers showed that the people still preferred the
McGuffey Readers and after long discussion and hesitation it was agreed
that these should again be revised. This determination was hastened by
the publication of the Appleton Readers in 1877, and by the incoming of
a number of skilled agents pushing these books in the field that had for
many years been held so strongly for the McGuffey Readers as to baffle
the best endeavors of two or three Eastern publishers who had tested the
market.

The Appleton Readers were prepared by Mr. Andrew J. Rickoff, then
superintendent of the Cleveland schools; Mr. William T. Harris, then
superintendent of the St. Louis schools, and Professor Mark Bailey of
Yale College. They were largely aided in the lower readers by Mrs.
Rickoff. These books, with this array of scholarly and well-known
authors, illustrated with carefully prepared engravings, well printed
and well bound, became at once formidable competitors for patronage and
went into use in many places where the McGuffey Readers had served at
least two generations of pupils. The Harvey Readers stood no chance in
this competition.

[The Revision of 1878]

On April 9, 1878, the firm of Van Antwerp, Bragg & Co. determined upon
making a new series of readers bearing the well-recognized title of
McGuffey's Eclectic Readers and distinguished as a "Revised Edition."
Some details of the plan as presented by the partner having literary
matters in charge were agreed to. The method of teaching in the first
reader was to be adjuste