Henry Hoyt, Boston

Henry Hoyt was born in 1804. Not much is known about his personal life. He was an agent for the American Sunday School Union between the late 1840's and mid 1850's. Subsequently during his publishing career he also had a working relationship with the Massachusetts Sabbath-School Society.

He edited the Child's Companion and Youth's Friend (1851-1852).

He was an agent in the early 1850's for the Youth's Penny Gazette and Sunday School Journal.

Henry Hoyt published numerous moralistic and religious books which were aimed at a juvenile audience. The earliest Hoyt edition I have seen is from 1859. He published as Henry Hoyt until 1877 when he incorporated as Henry Hoyt & Co. For most of Hoyt's existence it was at 9 Cornhill in Boston. In 1879 in what appears to be its last year it was at 25 Bromfield Street.

For all practical purposes Hoyt was succeeded by Ira Bradley & Company in 1876. Bradley subsequently published a number Hoyt series and libraries.

Henry Hoyt & Co published only a small number of books. This included two juvenile series (previously published by Henry Hoyt): New Picture Library and the Nellie Series.

It appears that the incorporation was necessitated by a bankruptcy proceeding beginning in about 1877. The final disposition and distribution of assets took place in 1881 when the creditors got 4% of their money back.

Here is a trade card advertising an adult series.

The books:

More than 70 series/libraries for juveniles were published by Henry Hoyt. The first multivolume volume set, the Hillside Series included numerous titles, many of which were included later in other series and in new formats. Most all of the series/libraries were sold as boxed sets and many individual volumes were never sold separately.

A majority of the titles that were in series had been previously published in non series formats. Most of the series' editions make no mention of the series that they are in thus making it very difficult to determine whether the book in hand is the non series or the series book. One distinguishing factor is that the pre-series books of the 1860's are mostly all blindstamped.

Dating the Henry Hoyt books can also be quite a challenge. The title page address for all of Hoyt's books was 9 Cornhill and rarely is a date after 1867 noted. (And of course most of the series were published after 1867.)

If known, I have added the copyright date after the listed title. Frequently that date is from the earlier non series publication. If there is no date, it means I am not certain of the copyright. Note that most of the Hoyt books were first published by Henry Hoyt.

The series list is below.