Joint Venture

As part of a continuing expansion in the publishing field, Time Inc. last week announced an agreement to purchase Little, Brown & Co., one of the oldest U.S. book publishers. Little, Brown's 64 stockholders will receive 170,000 shares of Time Inc. stock (current value: about $16.5 million) in a tax-free transaction. "We are delighted to be joining forces with so highly respected a firm as Little, Brown," said Time Inc. President James A. Linen. "We have no doubt whatsoever that in its new association with Time Inc., Little, Brown will continue to make increasingly important contributions in the book publishing field."

Its contributions to date are impressive. Established in Boston in 1837 during a severe depression, its founders had enough faith in the future of New England letters to take the risk. The company at first leaned heavily on law-and textbooks, publishing some of the most famous U.S. legal treatises, such as Oliver Wendell Holmes's The Common Law. Gradually it moved into general literature, publishing Louisa May Alcott, Edward Everett Hale, Emily Dickinson and William Prescott's histories. Admiral A. T. Mahan's The Influence of Sea Power Upon History remolded military thought when it appeared in 1890. Among Little, Brown's current authors are Samuel Eliot Morison, J. D. Salinger, Bertrand Russell, William Manchester, Peter De Vries, Ogden Nash, Gore Vidal. Issuing some 250 titles last year, the company's sales reached $11 million.

Little, Brown will remain headquartered on Boston's Beacon Street, in the old Cabot family residence overlooking the Boston Common. Nor are any changes in management planned; Arthur H. Thornhill Jr. will remain as president. Little, Brown will also continue to issue some 35 books a year jointly with the Atlantic Monthly Press, which publishes the Atlantic Monthly magazine. "We are confident," said Thornhill, "that this affiliation with Time Inc. will enable us to expand our publishing operations and meet the increased professional and general demands for materials of all kinds."

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