It was originally published in 1963 by Field Enterprises under the editorship of Clarence Barnhart, who wrote definitions for the Thorndike-Barnhart graded dictionary series for children, based on the educational works of Edward Thorndike whom Clarence Barnhart had known and worked with decades before.
The writing and editing of special articles was carried out by the staff of the World Book Encyclopedia.
With the decline of traditional lexicography and the death of Clarence Barnhart in 1993, the work appears to have fallen almost into obscurity as a standalone work, having been overshadowed by the World Book Encyclopedia, which also includes the dictionaries as part of the set.
In 1997 Scott Foresman was bought out by Pearson plc and merged into their publishing company Addison-Wesley.
[3] Upon the formation of Pearson Education in 1998 the company retired the work in favour of their own Longman dictionary range.