Small, Maynard & Company
book publisher in Boston
Small, Maynard & Company (Small, Maynard and Company in bibliographies) is a defunct publishing house located in Boston. In its day it was a highly reputable house in literature, and several U.S. authors were published by it, including Walt Whitman.
The company opened its doors in 1897 at 6 Beacon St. in Boston. New editions of Whitman's Leaves of Grass and an edition of his complete works among the first to be published, after acquiring the rights to these works from the poet's executors.
The company motto, which it published decoratively and in Latin, on title pages of its books was Scire quod sciendum, and translates as Knowledge worth knowing.
In 1899, Small, Maynard & Co. took over the Copeland & Day publishing house. A year later, founder Herbert Small retired due to ill health.
The business was sold at auction to Norman H. White, of Brookline, Massachusetts, owner of the Boston Bookbinding Company.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Small, Maynard & Company” is book publisher in Boston. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Small, Maynard and Company, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “book publisher in Boston” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7542583. VIAF identifies the subject as 153922309. The Library of Congress control number is no98065361. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1897 and 1899.
Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
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- Tracing reception history
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The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Small, Maynard & Company”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Small, Maynard & Company primary sources, Small, Maynard & Company archive and Small research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Small, Maynard & Company” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.