A. C. McClurg

The business began in 1844 as Chicago's first stationery store and first retail bookstore',[1] changing hands several times, often as the result of a fire.

Alexander McClurg came into management of the business at the time of the Great Chicago Fire (1871) and established an interest in fine literature, which was pursued by the company until late in the first decade of the 20th century.

[2] About a decade after McClurg's death, the company shut down his Rare Books section of the business and pursued popular adventure.

McClurg joined Griggs as a junior partner after he returned a general from the Civil War.

In 1913, A. C. McClurg published its first Edgar Rice Burroughs Tarzan of the Apes book.