Delphic Fraternity History

Alfred Harcourt was the first president of the historic zeta chapter of Delphic. His family was one of the earliest to settle in New Paltz, a small town in Ulster County New York. He grew up in a stone house where his family lived in since 1720. Harcourt's father was a fruit farmer who earned his living by selling his produce to local markets and in New York City, about ninety miles south. Alfred Harcourt was born in 1881. When he was nine, Alfred became ill and spent an entire year out of school. To past the time, his parents encouraged him to read books and magazines. He later attended the New Paltz Normal School. 

Alfred became a member of Kappa Delta Alpha Fraternity, founded in New Paltz in 1896. In 1899 KDA merged with another local fraternity on campus, Alpha Pi Nu, founded in 1889, to form the Zeta chapter of the statewide Delphic Fraternity. Harcourt was elected its first chapter president. The fraternity sponsored literary lectures, political and social debates, and other social activities. 

After graduating from the New Paltz Normal School, Harcourt went on to Columbia University where he met Donald Brace. The two went on to jobs in publishing firms, but later co-founded their own: Harcourt Brace and Company. The company became very successful over time, signing famous authors like George Orwell, Virginia Wolf, T.S. Eliot, cc. Cummings and Arthur C. Clark. Soon Harcourt Brace and Company became a leader in the publishing world. The company today is known as Harcourt Inc., an international publishing firm and a leader in the educational and academic publishing fields.

Alfred Harcourt retired in 1942 due to illness. He died on June 21, 1954 at the age of 73. His wife Ellen Knowles Harcourt founded the Alfred Harcourt Foundation in 1962. The Alfred Harcourt Foundation provides college scholarships to deserving students at various colleges and universities in the country. 

The tributes to Alfred Harcourt recognized him as one of the great publishers of this century. Even today, five decades after his death, the company he founded is still known to others in the publishing industry simply by the name “Harcourt.” 

“When I started Harcourt Brace and Company, I expected to have a lot of fun, and I hoped to build a sound, small business which would give me a decent living.”  ---  Alfred Harcourt

Sources: 

In a Valley Fair: A History of the State University College of Education at New Paltz, by Elizabeth Lang and Robert Lang, New York, 1960.

The History of Harcourt Brace and Company: 75 Years of Publishing Excellence, by Harcourt, Inc., Orlando, Fl., 1994.

Image of Harcourt is part of the Sojourner Truth Library Historic Photograph Collection.