THE BEGINNING 

In 1944, William C. Brown of Dubuque, Iowa purchased the rights to 26 book titles from a company in St. Louis. Most of those 26 titles were workbooks and lab manuals written by Midwestern professors and used in their own schools. Between 1944 and 1949, the William C. Brown Publishing Company saw its list of titles grow from that original 26 to more than 100.

 

 

GROWTH AND EXPANSION 

In 1949, due to increased sales and aggressive management, the company experienced great expansion and the Manufacturing Division was established. At the time, William C. Brown Publishing was one of only a handful of publishers who owned and operated all facets of textbook publication, from the original concept and submission of the manuscript to the shipment of bound books packaged and available for sale.

By 1961, the William C. Brown Company had grown to include not only guaranteed local titles (non-traditional) but also speculative college textbook publishing (traditional).  Offices headed by Associate Editors were established nationwide. When Editors were selling the speculative titles, they would use the name "W.C. Brown & Company, Publishers," the name chosen for the traditional publishing division. When the editors signed authors to guaranteed publishing agreements for local usage, they used the name "William C. Brown Book Company."

 

 

THE BIRTH OF KENDALL HUNT

Over time, the two divisions grew substantially and the similarity of names generated confusion in the marketplace. To eliminate this, the William C. Brown Book Company was renamed Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company. The name was chosen in keeping with the common practice of using a family name in college publishing. Kendall was a Brown family name.

In 1992, WCB Communications, as W.C. Brown & Company, Publishers had come to be known, was sold to the Times-Mirror Corporation. At that time, as is true again today, many mergers were occurring in the educational publishing industry.

 

 

TODAY

Since 1994, Kendall Hunt Publishing Company has been a stand-alone company, the only remaining of the original William C. Brown Publishing Company under the ownership of the Brown family. With more than 6,000 titles in print, we serve both the higher education and PreK-12 markets and offer traditional and non-traditional publishing solutions in both markets.

While our corporate headquarters remain centrally located in Dubuque, Iowa, we have a field force of Higher Education Acquisitions Editors and PreK-12 Sales Representatives located throughout the United States and Canada. As we have throughout our history, we continue to combine author service, innovation, and a pledge of quality to provide advantages that are unparalleled in the publishing industry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

KENDALL HUNT K-12 DIVISION

Today, Kendall Hunt’s PreK-12 Division is the premiere publisher of innovative, hands-on science, mathematics, gifted and virtual reality curricula. In conjunction with offering a variety of inquiry-based, stand-alone K-12 products, ConstructEd, a division of Kendall Hunt, allows schools and/or teachers, to create made-to-order textbooks or digital products using existing products or creating their own.

In 2016, Kendall Hunt acquired RCL Benziger, the major provider of religious education programs for Catholic dioceses, parishes, schools, families and individuals, including bilingual and special needs resources. RCL Benziger publishes materials for all Catholic faith formation needs, including sacramental preparation, family life, and catechist and adult faith formation.

In January of 2019, Kendall Hunt announced their partnership with Illustrative Mathematics. With this collaboration, Kendall Hunt provides the only free, IM-certified middle school math curriculum for students in grades 6-8.