Blue Mountain Arts

Blue Mountain Arts is an American publishing brand associated with greeting cards, poetry books, and electronic greeting cards. The business was co-founded by poet, writer, filmmaker, and businesswoman Susan Polis Schutz and her husband, Stephen Schutz. Its identity developed around accessible, emotionally direct writing about family relationships, love, friendship, personal growth, and other everyday experiences. Rather than relying primarily on conventional literary publishing, the brand connected poetry and short-form inspirational writing with gift products intended for personal exchange. The company’s publishing activity included books issued through the Blue Mountain Press name. One documented example is Susan Polis Schutz’s 1986 book To My Daughter With Love on the Important Things in Life, a poetry volume dedicated to her daughter. Stephen Schutz designed and illustrated the book, reflecting the collaborative creative role that the couple played in the business. This combination of poetry, illustration, and occasion-based gifting became central to the brand’s publishing approach. Blue Mountain Arts became particularly prominent during the early development of online greeting cards. In 1996, the company launched BlueMountain.com, an electronic greeting-card website that was among the early widely adopted services of its kind. The website allowed users to send digital cards and helped translate the company’s established greeting-card proposition into an Internet format. Its popularity made the Blue Mountain name visible well beyond traditional book and card retailing and placed the company within the rapid expansion of consumer Internet services in the late 1990s. In 1999, Excite@Home acquired BlueMountain.com in a transaction reported at approximately $780 million. The deal later became a frequently cited example of the inflated valuations associated with the dot-com era. After the collapse of many Internet-sector valuations, the website was sold again in 2001 to American Greetings for $35 million in cash. These transactions concerned the digital greeting-card business and do not by themselves establish the ownership of every Blue Mountain Arts publishing activity or the present corporate structure of the broader brand. Blue Mountain Arts is best understood as a content-led publishing and greeting-card brand whose products use poetry and concise personal messages to support interpersonal communication. Its historical significance lies in linking print books and greeting cards with one of the earliest mass-market electronic greeting-card services. Publicly available reference material provides limited detail about the company’s current management, ownership, headquarters, product catalog, and operating structure. Those details therefore remain unspecified here rather than being inferred from the better-documented history of its founders or the former BlueMountain.com website.

Blue Mountain Arts emerged from the creative and business partnership of Susan Polis Schutz and Stephen Schutz. Susan Polis Schutz brought a background in poetry, writing, teaching, social work, and publishing, while Stephen contributed design and illustration. The brand’s output combined literary content with products intended for personal gifting and communication, particularly greeting cards and books built around concise, emotionally accessible writing. A documented milestone in the company’s publishing history came in 1986, when Susan Polis Schutz published To My Daughter With Love on the Important Things in Life through the company’s Blue Mountain Press imprint or operating name. The volume was dedicated to her daughter, and Stephen Schutz designed and illustrated it. The book exemplified the brand’s use of poetry to address family relationships and significant personal occasions. Blue Mountain Arts subsequently became associated with a wider range of poetry books and greeting-card products. The company’s most consequential expansion occurred in 1996 with the creation of BlueMountain.com. At a time when Internet services were still developing their consumer formats, the site offered electronic greeting cards, adapting a familiar print-and-retail category to online use. The service gained substantial attention and user adoption, helping Blue Mountain reach an audience beyond conventional bookstores, card shops, and gift retailers. The digital business became the subject of major corporate transactions during the late-1990s Internet boom. In 1999, Excite@Home acquired BlueMountain.com in a deal reported at about $780 million. The valuation was later viewed as emblematic of the speculative pricing environment surrounding Internet companies. In 2001, American Greetings acquired the site for $35 million in cash, a substantial reduction from the earlier reported transaction value. The sale illustrates the volatility of online media and greeting-card assets during the transition from the dot-com expansion to its aftermath. The available reference material does not provide a complete account of Blue Mountain Arts’ later corporate organization, current ownership, present headquarters, or detailed product distribution. It also does not establish that all Blue Mountain Arts publishing operations transferred with the BlueMountain.com website. The brand’s documented historical contribution is therefore clearest in two areas: its use of poetry and visual design in books and greeting cards, and its early role in popularizing electronic greeting cards through BlueMountain.com.

• 2001

  Acquisition by American Greetings

  [1]Susan Polis Schutzen.wikipedia.org

  American Greetings acquired BlueMountain.com for $35 million in cash.

• 1999

  Acquisition by Excite@Home

  [1]Susan Polis Schutzen.wikipedia.org

  Excite@Home acquired BlueMountain.com in a reported transaction valued at approximately $780 million.

• 1996

  Launch of BlueMountain.com

  [1]Susan Polis Schutzen.wikipedia.org

  Blue Mountain Arts founded the BlueMountain.com electronic greeting-card website, an early online service that became widely used.

• 1986

  Publication of a major Blue Mountain Press poetry book

  [1]Susan Polis Schutzen.wikipedia.org

  Susan Polis Schutz published To My Daughter With Love on the Important Things in Life through Blue Mountain Press. Stephen Schutz designed and illustrated the book.

An emotionally expressive publishing and greeting-card brand centered on accessible poetry, personal relationships, and meaningful occasions, with an important early-digital identity through electronic greeting cards.

• Printed greeting cards

  Greeting cards

  Blue Mountain Arts developed greeting cards built around poems, personal sentiments, and relationship-focused messages. The cards served common gifting occasions and emphasized emotional directness over formal literary presentation.

• Books · 1986

  Poetry and gift books

  The company published poetry and gift-oriented books combining short-form verse with illustrations and occasion-based themes. A documented example is To My Daughter With Love on the Important Things in Life, published in 1986 through Blue Mountain Press.

• Electronic greeting cards · 1996

  BlueMountain.com

  BlueMountain.com translated the traditional greeting-card format into an online service. Launched in 1996, it became an early and widely adopted electronic greeting-card destination before being sold to Excite@Home and later American Greetings.

• 2001

  Sale of BlueMountain.com to American GreetingsM&A

  Background

  The online business was being repriced after the collapse of many dot-com valuations.

  Action taken

  American Greetings acquired BlueMountain.com for $35 million in cash.

  Aftermath

  The reported sale price was far below the 1999 transaction value and underscored the volatility of Internet-sector assets.

  Cash transaction value. $780 million reported 1999 transaction value → $35 million (2001)

  Source

• 1999

  Sale of BlueMountain.com to Excite@HomeM&A

  Background

  BlueMountain.com had become a highly visible online greeting-card service during the peak of the dot-com investment cycle.

  Action taken

  Excite@Home acquired BlueMountain.com in a transaction reported at approximately $780 million.

  Aftermath

  The valuation later came to be cited as an example of dot-com-era excesses.

  Reported transaction value. $780 million (1999)

  Source

• 1996

  Move into electronic greeting cardsProduct launch

  Background

  Consumer Internet use was expanding, while the greeting-card category remained strongly associated with personal communication and gifting.

  Action taken

  Blue Mountain Arts launched BlueMountain.com as an online electronic greeting-card service.

  Aftermath

  The service gained wide adoption and became the most prominent digital chapter in the brand’s documented history.

  Source

1. 1Susan Polis Schutzen.wikipedia.org
2. 2Blue Mountain Artssps.com