Belford, Clarke and Co., Chicago (1879-1892)

This firm was the first major publishing house that printed the Peck books. The first edition of Peck’s most famous title, Peck’s Bad Boy and His Pa was published by Belford, Clarke in 1883. It published Peck books between 1880 and 1890. Apparently Belford bought the rights in 1883 to the Peck’s Bad Boy newspaper columns for $1000.

The Belford brothers emigrated from Ireland to Toronto in 1857. Charles Belford (1837-1880) was involved in the newspaper business and was editor of both The Leader and later the Toronto Mail. In 1876 he joined with his two brothers Alexander (Aleck) and Robert to form the Belford Brothers. This firm lasted two years and upon Charles’ withdrawal because of ill health, the remaining brothers partnered with G. M. Rose in February, 1878 to form the publishing house of Rose-Belford.

George Maclean Rose (1829-1898) was a native of Scotland. His early training was as a printer. He was involved in the printing trade as a named partner in the Hunter Rose and Company firm. This firm carried on as a printer/publisher for a number of years.

Alexander Belford left the Rose-Belford Publishing House in 1879 and with James Clarke formed Belford, Clarke in Chicago. Robert Belford followed his brother to Chicago thereafter. In 1879 the company was styled as Belfords, Clarke & Co. The company officially incorporated in 1880 to Belford, Clarke and Company. The firm had a New York branch which was run by Robert Belford. Financial difficulties forced the company into receivership in 1889 and it officially went out of business in 1892.

(A significant number of reference materials claim that the Belfords and James Clarke left for Chicago in 1875 but this is clearly erroneous. It appears that the post-1937 references all are citing “Cheap Book Production” written by Raymond Shove – without attribution. Most likely this errant statement was copied by a number of successive “researchers”. A contemporaneous article in the New York Times from 1889 notes the founding of Belford, Clarke and Co. in 1879. An article in the 1889 American Stationer quoting the same source gives an 1879 date. Other early documents note the 1879 date. The earliest known title page imprints of Belfords, Clarke and Company are in 1879.)

Belford, Clarke and Company published seven George Peck solo authored books. It also published books written by Peck and others. Of the Peck only books six were first editions and one was a second edition. They are listed just below.

For more information, click here.

Leave a Reply