THE BRAINWASHING WILL BE COMPLETE...News Corp. buys Houghton Mifflin Harcourt books division

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NEW YORK (AP) — Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. is buying Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s book-publishing division, with titles by J.R.R. Tolkien and the Curious George children’s series, for $349 million.

News Corp. owns HarperCollins, one of the industry’s largest book publishers, and will operate the division, called HMH Books & Media, the New York company said Monday.

The publishing industry is consolidating, with German media giant Bertelsmann’s purchase of rival Simon & Schuster in November for $2.2 billion shrinking the so-called Big Five of American publishing — which also includes HarperCollins, Hachette Book Group and Macmillan — to four.

News Corp. had reportedly been interested in buying Simon & Schuster and its CEO Robert Thomson slammed the megadeal when it was announced, calling Bertelsmann a “book behemoth” and “literary leviathan” that would dominate the market.