Belford, Clarke and Co. Chicago, New York, San Francisco

The Belford brothers emigrated from Ireland to Toronto in 1857. Charles Belford (1837-1880) was involved in the newspaper business and was editor of both The Leader and later the Toronto Mail. In 1876 he joined with his two brothers Alexander (Aleck) and Robert to form the Belford Brothers. This firm lasted two years and upon Charles' withdrawal because of ill health, the remaining brothers partnered with G. M. Rose in February, 1878 to form the publishing house of Rose-Belford Publishing Company.

George Maclean Rose (1829-1898) was a native of Scotland. His early training was as a printer. He was involved in the printing trade as a named partner in the Hunter Rose and Company firm. That firm carried on as a printer/publisher for a number of years.

Alexander and Robert Belford left the Rose-Belford Publishing House in 1879 and with James Clarke formed Belfords, Clarke & Co.

In March, 1879 Belfords, Clarke & Co. advertised for agents in Toronto at 60 York St. By August, 1879, the firm had left Toronto and had settled in Chicago. The firm failed as of January, 1880 because of business dealings in Toronto. Assignments to creditors were made at that time. In March, 1880 a new outfit, Belford, Clarke & Co. was operating as a publisher.

The firm established a New York branch which was run by Robert Belford. Financial difficulties forced the company into receivership in 1889. An agreement with creditors allowed the company to continue with the New York branch being called the Belford Company and the Chicago branch continuing as Belford-Clarke Co. It officially went out of business in 1892.

Alexander Belford went on to run the Chicago publisher, Morrill, Higgins & Co. This publisher only operated in 1892. Of interest, W. B. Conkey got all of the Morrill, Higgins' plates. These plates included the George W. Peck book plates that Morrill, Higgins had gotten earlier from Belford, Clarke & Co.

(A significant number of reference materials claim that the Belfords and James Clarke left for Chicago in 1875 but this is clearly erroneous. It appears that the post-1937 references all are citing "Cheap Book Production" written by Raymond Shove - without attribution. Most likely this errant statement was copied by a number of successive "researchers". Contemporaneous newspaper articles note that the 1879 date of the Chicago immigration is correct and the Belford Clarke & Co. was established in 1880.)

Most Belford, Clarke & Co. books are dated. But if not, the imprint cities can be helpful in dating the books.
1879-1883 note Chicago on the imprint.
1882 (Some of this year’s book also have St. Louis on the imprint in addition to Chicago.)
1884-1888 Chicago and New York are listed in the imprint
1888-1889 San Francisco was also on the imprint.

Belford, Clarke & Co. printed only a few series for juveniles. Most of its production was either in large , multivolume publisher’s series (Caxton Edition, Household Library) or in one author’s series (Dickens, Thackeray etc). This firm published the first editions of a number of George W. Peck books (Peck's Bad Boy). They were generally aport of the large Belford, Clarke & Co. publisher's Series. See: George W. Peck - Belford, Clarke and Co.