Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Company (/ˈhoʊtən/ HOH-tən;[9] HMH) is an American publisher of textbooks, instructional technology materials, assessments, and reference works.

[10] Prior to March 2010, it was a subsidiary of Education Media and Publishing Group Limited, an Irish-owned holding company registered in the Cayman Islands and formerly known as Riverdeep.

In 1832, William Ticknor and John Allen purchased a bookselling business in Boston and began to involve themselves in publishing; James T. Fields joined as a partner in 1843.

Fields and Ticknor gradually gathered an impressive list of writers, including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau.

[11] The duo formed a close relationship with Riverside Press, a Boston printing company owned by Henry Oscar Houghton.

The new partnership, named Houghton, Osgood and Company, and based in Boston's Winthrop Square,[13] held the rights to the literary works of both publishers.

Despite a lucrative partnership with Lawson Valentine, Houghton, Mifflin and Company still had debt it had inherited from Ticknor and Fields, so it decided to add partners.

In 1961, Houghton Mifflin famously passed on Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, giving it up to Alfred A. Knopf who published it in 1962.

[20][21][22][23] Works by authors included: Ursula K. Le Guin, Theodora Kroeber, Nicolas Sidjakov, Edward Ormondroyd, Charlotte Zolotow, Anne B. Fisher, Allen Say, Beverly Cleary, Crawford Kilian, Adrien Stoutenburg, and Sam DeWitt.

[28] In 1996, HMH created their Great Source Education Group to combine the supplemental material product lines of their School Division, McDougal Littell, and Heath.

[30] In 2017, it was announced that Houghton Mifflin Harcourt would be getting involved in TV production with a planned 2019 Netflix series that will revive the Carmen Sandiego franchise.

On November 25, 2008, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt announced a temporary freeze on acquisition of new trade division titles, allegedly in response to the economic crisis of 2008.

[43] On July 27, 2009, the Irish Independent newspaper reported that Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's controlling shareholder EMPG was in the process of a re-structuring negotiations with its unsecured-debt holders that would lead to the conversion of the debt into equity.

The terms included the holding company debt converting into 45% of the fully diluted common equity, an effective 25 percent relaxation of financial covenants, second lien lenders agreeing to convert their holdings into a PIK instrument, reducing annual interest costs by $100m, and a further $50m increase its working capital facility.

[47] On February 22, 2010, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt announced that EMPG and HMH had reached an agreement to restructure the finances of the company and recapitalize its balance sheet with a substantial fresh cash investment by institutional investors.

[57] In 2012, HMH acquired the culinary and reference portfolio of John Wiley & Sons, including CliffsNotes and Webster's New World Dictionary.

[59] In 2014, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt sponsored Curious George (TV series) on PBS Kids replacing Chuck E. Cheese.

The sale includes HMH's trade publishing division and computer video game franchises such as Carmen Sandiego and The Oregon Trail.

[69] Prior to the tender date, the stock generated a lot of hype on internet forum WallStreetBets, with over 36,000 contracts traded for the June 17 $22.5 strike price call options.

[75] HMH is also formerly home to media brands like Carmen Sandiego and The Oregon Trail; and brands including The Whole30; The Best American Series; The American Heritage and Webster's New World Dictionaries; Better Homes and Gardens; How to Cook Everything; the Peterson Field Guides; CliffsNotes; and many children's books, including the "Curious George" series and The Little Prince; as well as publishing the works of J. R. R. Tolkien for United States distribution.