Holt McDougal was established when Holt, Rinehart and Winston and McDougal Littell were combined into one publishing operation.

Holt, Rinehart and Winston emerged in 1960 when Henry Holt & Co. acquired both Rinehart and Company and the John C. Winston Company. Holt’s origins can be traced back to Leypoldt and Holt, founded in New York City in 1866 by Frederick Leypoldt and Henry Holt.

McDougal Littell was founded in 1969 as a publisher of supplementary soft-cover textbooks for secondary English teachers, later expanding its reach to basal programs in Science, Social Studies, Mathematics, World Languages, and Language Arts.

In 1994, McDougal Littell became part of Houghton Mifflin Company, a leading publisher of textbooks, instructional technology, assessments and other educational materials for the elementary, secondary, and college markets. Houghton Mifflin traces its beginnings to 1832 when John Allen and William D. Ticknor bought the Old Corner Bookstore at the corner of Washington and School streets in Boston.

In 1986, Holt, Rinehart and Winston was sold to Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. When Houghton Mifflin acquired Harcourt in 2007, Holt, Rinehart and Winston and McDougal Littell were integrated as Holt McDougal.

1915 -  Harcourt becomes the sole U.S. publisher of poet Robert Frost
1922 -  Holt publishes Modern Biology, widely regarded as a groundbreaking classic and bestseller
1967 -  Houghton Mifflin becomes a publicly-traded company
1969 - The American Heritage Dictionary is introduced by Houghton Mifflin
1986 - Acquisition of Holt, Rinehart and Winston by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich
1994 - Acquisition of McDougal Littell by Houghton Mifflin
1996 - The Great Source Division is created by combining the supplemental products of DC Heath, Houghton Mifflin's School Division and McDougal Littell
2002 - Houghton Mifflin Company is acquired by a consortium of private investment firms
2007 - Holt, Rinehart, and Winston merges with McDougal Littell to become Holt McDougal, a division of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt