Few names in American publishing reach as far back into the history of the printed word as A·C·McClurg & Co.

The story stretches across more than a century of American literary and commercial history, from nineteenth century Chicago and the Great Chicago Fire to W. E. B. Du Bois, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan of the Apes, and the transformation of publishing in the digital age.

Founded from a bookselling business whose roots date to 1844, the historic A·C·McClurg & Co. became one of Chicago’s significant booksellers, publishers, and book distributors. After decades of growth, fires, rebuilding, literary publishing, and wholesale distribution, the original business eventually ceased operations.

Decades later, the name returned.

According to the modern A·C·McClurg & Co., the publishing house reopened in 2008 as a hybrid publisher, reviving a historic name for a publishing world dramatically different from the one in which it was born.

It is a story not simply of survival, but of rebirth and revival.

 

The Beginning: Chicago, 1844

The origins of A·C·McClurg & Co. can be traced to Chicago in 1844, when a business known as W. W. Barlow & Co. opened as a book and stationery establishment.

The business soon became associated with S. C. Griggs & Co., an important early name in Chicago bookselling.

In 1859, a young Alexander Caldwell McClurg joined the firm.

McClurg’s career was interrupted by the American Civil War. After military service, he returned to the business and eventually became one of the figures who would shape its future.

Chicago itself was rapidly becoming a major American commercial center, and the book trade grew with it.

Then came disaster.

 

Fire, Destruction and Reconstruction

Fire became a recurring chapter in the McClurg story.

The business suffered an earlier fire before being devastated again during the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.

Rather than bringing the enterprise to an end, the destruction led to another beginning.

The business was reorganized as Jansen, McClurg & Co., and Alexander McClurg became increasingly influential in its direction.

By around 1880, the firm had grown into one of the country’s major book distributors. Its activities extended well beyond publishing, supplying books, stationery and other merchandise throughout Chicago, the Midwest and the wider American market.

The company also became connected to Chicago’s developing literary culture.

 

The Dial and Chicago’s Literary Culture

In 1880, Jansen, McClurg & Co. revived The Dial, a literary magazine that developed a national reputation for literary criticism and intellectual discussion.

The publishing house and its bookstore became part of a Chicago literary environment that brought together writers, critics, booksellers and readers.

A particularly famous element of this culture was the firm’s rare book department and the circle associated with its “Saints and Sinners Corner.”

The company was becoming more than a commercial bookseller.

It was becoming part of the literary identity of Chicago.

 

The A·C·McClurg Name Is Born

By the late 1880s, Alexander C. McClurg had become the senior figure in the organization, and the business adopted the name by which it would become historically recognized:

A·C·McClurg & Co.

The company continued developing its publishing, bookselling and distribution operations.

Then, in 1899, disaster struck again when fire destroyed the firm’s premises.

Once again, the business rebuilt.

Alexander McClurg helped finance its reconstruction and reorganization, continuing a pattern that would come to characterize the McClurg story: destruction followed by renewal.

McClurg died in 1901, but his name remained above the door.

And some of the publishing house’s most important books were still to come.

 

W. E. B. Du Bois and The Souls of Black Folk

In 1903, A·C·McClurg & Co. published one of the most consequential works associated with its historical catalogue:

The collection of essays examined race, identity, education and African American life in the United States after Reconstruction.

The book became a landmark of American intellectual and African American literary history.

Its association with A·C·McClurg placed the Chicago publisher behind a work that would remain in print and under scholarly discussion more than a century later.

 

Edgar Rice Burroughs and the Birth of Tarzan in Book Form

Another defining moment came with Chicago writer Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Burroughs had created a character who would become one of the most recognizable figures in twentieth century popular culture:Tarzan.

After appearing in magazine form, Tarzan of the Apes received its first hardcover book publication from A·C·McClurg & Co. in 1914.

The relationship became enormously important to both Burroughs and the publisher.

McClurg went on to publish multiple Tarzan books as well as other Burroughs adventures, helping bring his imaginative worlds from serialized popular fiction into permanent book form.

Among the notable Burroughs titles historically associated with A·C·McClurg are:

Edgar Rice Burroughs

• Tarzan of the Apes

• The Return of Tarzan

• The Beasts of Tarzan

• The Son of Tarzan

• Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar

• Jungle Tales of Tarzan

• Tarzan the Untamed

• Tarzan the Terrible

• Tarzan and the Golden Lion

• Tarzan and the Ant Men

• A Princess of Mars

A Princess of Mars, published in book form by A·C·McClurg in 1917, introduced book readers to Burroughs’s extraordinary Martian adventure world and its hero, John Carter.

Authors in the Historic McClurg Catalogue

The historical A·C·McClurg catalogue extended well beyond a single genre or author.

Among the writers associated with the house were figures whose work ranged from sociology and literary criticism to adventure, fiction, nature writing and children’s literature.

Notable names connected with the historical McClurg publishing tradition include:

W. E. B. Du Bois

Notable McClurg title:
The Souls of Black Folk — 1903

A landmark collection of essays examining race and African American life in the United States.

Edgar Rice Burroughs

Notable McClurg titles:
Tarzan of the Apes
A Princess of Mars
The Return of Tarzan
The Beasts of Tarzan
The Son of Tarzan
Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar

Burroughs became one of the most commercially significant authors in McClurg’s history, while Tarzan developed into an international cultural phenomenon.

Gene Stratton Porter

The celebrated American novelist and naturalist is among the authors identified with A·C·McClurg’s historical publishing catalogue.

Her writing combined popular storytelling with a deep interest in the natural world.

L. Frank Baum

The creator of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is also among the notable authors represented in the broader historical catalogue associated with the McClurg publishing tradition.

Together, these names demonstrate the range of the house’s literary history: intellectual works, popular fiction, adventure, children’s literature and writing about nature and American life.

 

From Publishing House to Book Wholesaler

By the early 1920s, the company’s priorities were changing.

A·C·McClurg increasingly concentrated on the wholesale book trade rather than originating new publications.

In 1923, its Chicago retail bookstore was sold to Brentano’s, while McClurg continued primarily as a major book wholesaler.

This reflected a broader transformation in the American book business.

The company that had once published major literary and popular works increasingly became part of the infrastructure that moved other publishers’ books into stores and into readers’ hands.

Historical records show that the original McClurg enterprise ultimately came to an end during the twentieth century. Archival accounts generally place the liquidation of the remaining original company in 1962, while the modern A·C·McClurg website describes the historic house as ceasing operations in 1967, reflecting the endpoint of the surviving corporate and archival record.

Either way, an extraordinary chapter of Chicago publishing had closed.

But the name did not disappear permanently.

 

Rebirth: A·C·McClurg Returns

According to the modern publishing house, A·C·McClurg & Co. reopened in 2008.

The publishing industry it returned to was almost unrecognizable compared with the industry the historic company had known.

Books were no longer dependent exclusively on offset printing, warehouses and physical bookstores.

Digital publishing had arrived.

Print on demand was becoming practical.

Amazon, Kindle and online retail were reshaping distribution.

Authors could communicate directly with readers.

Independent publishing was expanding rapidly.

The barrier between possessing a manuscript and reaching an international readership had begun to fall.

For the revived A·C·McClurg & Co., this created an opportunity to reinterpret an old publishing principle for a new generation.

 

A Historic Name, A Hybrid Publishing Model

The modern house describes itself as a hybrid publisher.

Rather than operating exclusively through the traditional model in which a publisher acquires an author’s publishing rights and finances publication in exchange for control and a share of the book’s economics, the revived A·C·McClurg model is structured around author ownership.

The company states that its authors retain 100 percent of the rights to their work, while the house is compensated for the professional publishing services it provides.

Those services can include editorial development, proofreading, book design, production, print and ebook preparation, distribution and marketing support.

It represents a significant change in the relationship between author and publisher.

The original A·C·McClurg operated in an era when access to printing presses, distribution networks and bookstores determined whether most manuscripts could realistically become commercially available books.

The revived house operates in an era in which technology has removed many of those barriers.

The challenge today is different.

Authors increasingly need professional editorial judgment, design, production, positioning and distribution without necessarily surrendering ownership of their intellectual property.

That is the space the modern A·C·McClurg seeks to occupy.

 

Rebirth and Revival

There is a certain symmetry to the history of A·C·McClurg & Co.

The company was rebuilt after fire.

It survived the destruction of Chicago.

It moved between bookselling, publishing, literary culture and national book distribution.

Its name survived the death of Alexander McClurg himself.

And generations after the original enterprise disappeared, that name returned to publishing.

The tools have changed.

A nineteenth century printing and bookselling economy has become a global digital publishing ecosystem.

The bookstore counter has been joined by online retailers.

Large print runs have been joined by print on demand.

The hardcover has been joined by the ebook.

National distribution has become potentially worldwide distribution.

But the central object remains remarkably familiar:

a manuscript transformed into a professionally produced book and placed into the hands of a reader.

That continuity connects the historic and modern versions of A·C·McClurg & Co.

 

A New Chapter in a Long Publishing Story

A·C·McClurg & Co. occupies an unusual position in publishing history.

Its historical name is connected with W. E. B. Du Bois and The Souls of Black Folk.

It is connected with Edgar Rice Burroughs and the first hardcover edition of Tarzan of the Apes.

It is connected with Chicago’s rise as a center of American publishing and bookselling.

It survived fires, reconstruction, economic transformation and dramatic changes in the way Americans bought and read books.

Today, the revived A·C·McClurg & Co. presents that heritage through a modern hybrid publishing model centered on professional bookmaking and author ownership.

The original house belonged to the age of presses, warehouses and booksellers.

The revived house operates in the age of ebooks, print on demand and global digital distribution.

The medium has evolved. The publishing landscape has changed. The name has returned.

A·C·McClurg & Co. — reborn, revived, and writing its next chapter.