Grolier was one of the largest American publishers of general encyclopedias, including The Book of Knowledge (1910), The New Book of Knowledge (1966), The New Book of Popular Science (1972), Encyclopedia Americana (1945), Academic American Encyclopedia (1980), and numerous incarnations of a CD-ROM encyclopedia (1986–2003). As an educational publishing company Grolier was known for its presence in school libraries and its in-home encyclopedia sales. It also had a strong presence among parents of children under six years old, the market for Grolier's direct mail-to-the-home business. In June 2000, Grolier became part of Scholastic Corporation, which now maintains Scholastic GO, formerly Grolier Online. History The company that became encyclopedia publisher Grolier Incorporated was founded by Walter M. Jackson (1863–1923) as the Grolier Society. Jackson had been the partner of Horace Everett Hooper in publishing the 10th edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica and in developing its 11th edition. He split with Hooper in 1908–1909 in a nasty legal fight after failing to wrest control of the Britannica from Hooper. The Grolier Society specialized in publishing extra-fine editions of classics and rare literature. The Society was named after the Grolier Club, which had been founded in 1884 to advance the arts involved in making books and which was itself named after a well-known French bibliophile, Jean Grolier de Servières. In 1910, Jackson purchased the rights to publish the British The Children's Encyclopædia under the name The Book of Knowledge. In 1936, the company was acquired by its senior sales executive, Fred P. Murphy, who had joined the firm in 1912. Grolier's common stock began trading publicly in 1954, and it was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1965. Under Murphy's leadership, by the mid-1940s, Grolier became one of the largest publishers of general encyclopedias, including The Book of Knowledge and the Encyclopedia Americana. Grolier also published the Grolier Encyclopedia (based on the Harmsworth's Universal Encyclopedia and the Doubleday's Encyclopedia) (1941), American Peoples Encyclopedia (1962), The New Book of Knowledge (1966), the Academic American Encyclopedia (1980), The New Grolier Electronic Encyclopedia (1985 CD-ROM), and the Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia (1995). Grolier conducted its encyclopedia sales through subsidiaries; Americana Corporation, The Grolier Society, Inc, R.H. Hinckley Company, Spencer International Press, Inc., and The Richards Company, Inc. Each subsidiary distributed publications as designated by Grolier. Murphy encouraged a productive rivalry among the subsidiaries, giving their executives broad authority and profit-sharing incentives. In 1959, Murphy hired