Bartlett, John (14 June 1820–03 December 1905), editor, publisher, and lexicographer, was born in Plymouth, Massachusetts, the son of William Bartlett and Susan Thacher. Bartlett’s love of words manifested itself at an early age: at three years he was reciting verses from the Bible; by nine he had read it from cover to cover. Educated in Plymouth’s public schools, he left school at the age of sixteen. Soon after, he took a job at a bookbinding company that was then associated with the University Book Store serving Harvard University in Cambridge. His copious memory and love of books soon had the university faculty and students using him as a ready reference tool. “Ask John Bartlett” was the frequent answer to most questions. To help his memory, Bartlett began keeping a notebook of common phrases and quotations....
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Bartlett, John (1820-1905), editor, publisher, and lexicographer
John J. Doherty
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Bostwick, Arthur Elmore (1860-1942), editor and librarian
John Mark Tucker
Bostwick, Arthur Elmore (08 March 1860–13 February 1942), editor and librarian, was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, the son of David Elmore Bostwick, a physician, and Adelaide McKinley. Bostwick took advantage of the cultural assets in his hometown, reading periodicals from a neighbor’s private library, studying romance and classical languages, participating in music ensembles, and attending the Episcopal church where his mother was organist. His innate intellectual abilities were thus stimulated, laying the foundation for an active life of the mind. He attended Yale College, won the first Silliman Fellowship in physical science, graduated Phi Beta Kappa, and earned a B.A. in 1881 and a Ph.D. in physics in 1883. Aspiring to a college professorship, he declined an appointment as a Fellow at the Johns Hopkins University in favor of a temporary position at Yale but, when a permanent post was not forthcoming, he moved to Montclair, New Jersey, where he taught high school from 1884 to 1886. In 1885 Bostwick married Lucy Sawyer, with whom he had three children....
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Bradford, John (1749-1830), first printer in Kentucky
Mary Kupiec Cayton
Bradford, John (06 June 1749–20 March 1830), first printer in Kentucky, was born in Prince William (later Fauquier) County, Virginia, the son of Daniel Bradford, a surveyor for Fauquier County, and Alice Morgan. He was one of eleven children in a family that probably also farmed. Bradford’s father taught him the craft of surveying. In 1771 John Bradford married Eliza James; they had five sons and four daughters....
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Day, F. Holland (1864-1933), publisher, photographer, and bibliophile
Estelle Jussim
Day, F. Holland (23 July 1864–06 November 1933), publisher, photographer, and bibliophile, was born Fred Holland Day in Norwood, Massachusetts, the son of Lewis Day, an industrialist, and Anna Smith. The only child of wealthy parents, young Day was educated largely by private tutors. The family split their time between their Norwood house and an apartment in Boston, at that time considered the Athens of America. At fifteen Day accompanied his mother to Denver, where she recuperated from a lung disease. It was in Denver that he made his first sustained contact with a large colony of Chinese, and their art and material culture made a lasting impact on him. He began to draw with Chinese inks and brushes and purchased many Chinese artifacts; he remained fascinated by Oriental culture to his dying day. This fascination was abetted by the world-class Oriental collections at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts....
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Duyckinck, Evert Augustus (1816-1878), editor, author, and bibliophile
Robert L. Gale
Duyckinck, Evert Augustus (23 November 1816–13 August 1878), editor, author, and bibliophile, was born in New York City, the son of Evert Duyckinck, a wealthy publisher and book collector, and Harriet June. He graduated from Columbia College in 1835. He either wrote or cowrote the only issue of ...
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Duyckinck, George Long (1823-1863), author and editor
David J. Nordloh
Duyckinck, George Long (17 October 1823–30 March 1863), author and editor, was born in New York City, the son of Evert Duyckinck, book publisher, and Harriet June. Duyckinck, whose reputation has been almost eclipsed by that of his older brother, the more outgoing and prolific ...
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Fields, James Thomas (1817-1881), publisher, editor, writer, and lecturer
Rita K. Gollin
Fields, James Thomas (31 December 1817–24 April 1881), publisher, editor, writer, and lecturer, was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the son of Michael Fields, a sea captain, and Margaret Beck Fields. His father died at sea before James's fourth birthday, leaving his devoted mother little more than the modest house where she raised her two sons. A gregarious and book-loving boy, James completed high school at the age of thirteen, then headed for Boston. Although college was never an option, a family friend arranged what turned out to be the next best thing: an apprenticeship with the booksellers Carter and Hendee at what is still known as the Old Corner Bookstore. Remaining at that workplace after Carter and Hendee sold out to Allen and Ticknor in 1832, and after ...
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Folsom, Charles (1794-1872), librarian and editor
Kenneth E. Carpenter
Folsom, Charles (24 December 1794–08 November 1872), librarian and editor, was born in Exeter, New Hampshire, the son of James Folsom and Sarah Gilman (occupations unknown). After preparation at Phillips Exeter Academy, Folsom entered Harvard College as a sophomore in 1810. He taught school at Sudbury during winter vacations and graduated from Harvard in 1813. He then taught at the academy in Hallowell, Maine, and in the fall of 1814 returned to Cambridge to study divinity. After giving that up, he made arrangements to study medicine, but instead, on the recommendation of Harvard president John T. Kirkland, sailed in 1816 to the Mediterranean on the 74-gun ship of the line ...
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Ford, Guy Stanton (1873-1962), historian, editor, and academic administrator
Benjamin L. Alpers
Ford, Guy Stanton (09 May 1873–29 December 1962), historian, editor, and academic administrator, was born in Liberty Corners, Salem Township, Wisconsin, the son of Thomas D. Ford, a medical doctor, and Helen E. Shumway, a teacher. During Guy’s early childhood, his father’s drinking and business failures forced his mother, with her two sons, to move in with a series of relatives, eventually leading them to Sutherland, Iowa, in 1883. Shortly thereafter his father moved to Plainfield, Iowa, a town of about 300 people. In 1884 the family reunited in Plainfield. Thomas Ford was an extremely impractical man and the family lived in relative poverty throughout Guy’s years in Plainfield....
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Garraty, John A. (04 July 1920–19 December 2007)
Mark C. Carnes
Garraty, John A. (04 July 1920–19 December 2007), historian and editor, was born John Arthur Garraty in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Arthur (Hap) Garraty, a foreman for a moving company, and Helen Tobias, a school secretary. Arthur Garraty died when John was eight. The boy attended local schools and graduated from Erasmus Hall (a public high school) in 1937. That year he enrolled at Brooklyn College and graduated in 1941. During World War II Garraty served as a swimming instructor in the Merchant Marine. In 1945 he married Joan Perkins; the couple had three children....
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Gode-von Aesch, Alexander (1906-1970), linguist, translator, and publisher
Dennis Wepman
Gode-von Aesch, Alexander (30 October 1906–10 August 1970), linguist, translator, and publisher, was born Alexander Gottfried Friedrich Gode-von Aesch in Bremen, Germany, the son of Heinrich Gode, a businessman, and Anna von Aesch. With a German father and a Swiss mother, Alexander Gode, as he was most often known, was multilingual from childhood and studied language at the Universities of Vienna and Paris. He immigrated to the United States in 1927 to pursue his education further and became a citizen in 1939. He obtained a master of arts degree in languages at Columbia University in New York City in 1929 and a doctorate of philosophy in Germanic studies there ten years later. He married Johanna Roeser in 1930; the couple had two children. After his wife's death in 1963 he married Janet Alison Livermore, with whom he also had two children....
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Henry, Caleb Sprague (1804-1884), educator, pastor, and author
Steven L. Porter
Henry, Caleb Sprague (02 August 1804–09 March 1884), educator, pastor, and author, was born in Rutland, Massachusetts, the son of Silas Henry and Dorothy Pierce. Henry received his A.B. from Dartmouth in 1825 and later studied at Andover Theological Seminary. At twenty-four years of age, Henry was ordained a pastor in the Congregational denomination and served at churches in Greenfield, Mississippi (1829–1831), and in West Hartford, Connecticut (1833–1835). Henry was a proponent of the peace movement and in 1834 wrote the pamphlet ...
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Huberman, Leo (1903-1968), teacher, writer, and publisher
Elizabeth Huberman
Huberman, Leo (17 October 1903–09 November 1968), teacher, writer, and publisher, was born in Newark, New Jersey, the son of Joseph Huberman, a painter and decorator, and Fannie Kramerman. After graduating in 1922 from Newark State Normal School he taught in the Newark public schools (1922–1926). Huberman received a B.S. in education in 1926 and later an M.S. in 1937 from New York University. During summer vacations he gained valuable industrial experience (beginning at age eleven) by working in a celluloid factory, a glass factory, as a post office clerk, and as a runner on Wall Street....
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Johnson, Allen (1870-1931), historian and editor
Clyde W. Barrow
Johnson, Allen (29 January 1870–18 January 1931), historian and editor, was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, the son of Moses Allen Johnson, manager of the Lowell Felting Mills, and Elmira J. Shattuck, a cultivated woman who had mastered New Testament Greek. Johnson attended the Lowell public schools and graduated as high school valedictorian in 1888. He then attended Amherst College, from which he received a B.A. in 1892. Johnson impressed both faculty and students at Amherst with his meticulous, orderly, and methodical scholarship. He was considered more mature than most college students and was always finely dressed, dignified, and cordial in his dealings with others....
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Morgan, Dale Lowell (1914-1971), historian, editor, and bibliographer
David J. Whittaker
Morgan, Dale Lowell (18 December 1914–30 March 1971), historian, editor, and bibliographer, was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, the son of James Lowell Morgan, an office machine salesman, and Emily May Holmes, a schoolteacher. Morgan’s father died when he was six years old, and the burden of caring for the family of four children fell on his mother, who taught in the Salt Lake City public schools. Morgan was a gifted student, but his contracting spinal meningitis at age fourteen seriously changed his life; he was left totally deaf....
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Nash, John Henry (1871-1947), printer, bibliophile, and typographer
Stephen L. Levine
Nash, John Henry (12 March 1871–24 May 1947), printer, bibliophile, and typographer, was born in Woodbridge, Ontario, Canada, the son of John Marvin Nash, a mechanical engineer, and Catherine Cain. Though withdrawn from public school at age sixteen to begin his practical education by learning his father’s trade, Nash insisted on becoming a printer. He began his career in 1888 with an apprenticeship at James Murray and Company, a Toronto printing firm. Despite his thorough training and seeming determination to become a printer, Nash left the business after a few years and embarked on the life of a bicycle racer. A major fad in the 1890s, bicycle racing offered the opportunity for wealth and fame, and both appealed to him. He traveled the racing circuit from around 1890 to 1892, when his passion for the sport waned and he decided to go back to printing. Nash returned to Toronto to work for Brough and Caswell and then for Milne-Burgham Company, where he remained until 1894. In the winter of 1894 he left Toronto to work for App-Stotts in Denver, Colorado; he stayed there a mere four months, after which he relocated to San Francisco....
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Peck, Harry Thurston (1856-1914), classical scholar and writer
Olive Hoogenboom
Peck, Harry Thurston (24 November 1856–23 March 1914), classical scholar and writer, was born in Stamford, Connecticut, the son of Harry Peck, a schoolteacher, and Harriet Elizabeth Thurston. Enamored by books, he damaged his eyes by reading by candlelight late at night when his parents thought he was sleeping. At Columbia College he was conspicuous for his mental keenness, making its ...
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Sheed, Francis Joseph (1897-1981), Catholic street preacher and book publisher
Edward R. Kantowicz
Sheed, Francis Joseph (20 March 1897–20 November 1981), Catholic street preacher and book publisher, was born in Sydney, Australia, the son of John Sheed, a draftsman, and Mary Maloney. Sheed’s family background prepared him for a lifetime of religious controversy. His father’s family were Scottish Presbyterians with a bitter animus against Roman Catholicism, while his father was a Marxist as well as a violently abusive alcoholic. His Irish mother, however, remained a devout Catholic all of her life and insisted that her son be baptized in the Roman church. For some inexplicable reason, his father insisted that the son attend Methodist Sunday school. This gave Frank a lifelong love for Wesleyan hymns and a very Protestant attraction to the person of Jesus. At the same time, it seems to have confirmed his Catholicism by driving it underground and giving it a whiff of martyrdom....
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Smith, Lloyd Pearsall (1822-1886), librarian, publisher, and editor
Donald G. Davis and Jeannette Woodward
Smith, Lloyd Pearsall (06 February 1822–02 July 1886), librarian, publisher, and editor, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of John Jay Smith, a librarian, and Rachel Collins Pearsall. Following graduation from Haverford College at age fifteen, Smith became a bookkeeper and an accountant in the counting house of Waln & Leaming. In 1844 he married Hannah E. Jones, with whom he later adopted a daughter. While still at Waln & Leaming, Smith began publishing, among other works, ...
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Sparks, Jared (1789-1866), historian, editor, and clergyman
Richard J. Cox
Sparks, Jared (10 May 1789–14 March 1866), historian, editor, and clergyman, was born in Willington, Connecticut, the son of Eleanor Orcutt, who nine months later married Joseph Sparks, a farmer. His early life was somewhat unstable. In the mid-1790s he was sent to live with an aunt and uncle to relieve the burdens of the many children in the family, and with his adoptive family, he settled in 1800 in Camden, New York. In 1805 he moved home for a brief time and then went to live with another uncle in Tolland, Connecticut. There he apprenticed as carpenter and taught in local schools. Early on he displayed interests in literary and historical pursuits along with the more common interest in theology. While in Arlington, Vermont, he organized the Arlington Philosophical Society in 1808. He studied at the Philips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire, beginning in September 1809, the result of Sparks’s early interests in the ministry and his receipt of a scholarship. There he met and became lifelong friends with another future New England historian, ...
