Bancroft, Hubert Howe (05 May 1832–02 March 1918), businessman and historian, was born in Granville, Ohio, the son of Azariah Ashley Bancroft, a farmer, and Lucy Howe, a teacher. His formal education stopped short of college, and at age sixteen Bancroft left home to learn the book trade from his brother-in-law in Buffalo, New York. Sent to California with a valuable consignment of books, Bancroft opened his own bookstore in San Francisco in December 1856, with capital supplied by his sister and credit from several New York firms. Efficiently run, and favored by a margin between California gold and depreciated eastern currency during the Civil War, Bancroft’s store proved phenomenally profitable. Within a decade, H. H. Bancroft & Co. supported extensive European travel for its proprietor and permitted him the luxury of semiretirement at age thirty-seven. In 1869–1870 he built a five-story building for his business, which expanded to include stationery, office supplies, printing, and bookbinding. He turned over the day-to-day operations to his younger brother, Albert, while he moved into the fifth floor and devoted himself to the study of history....
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Bancroft, Hubert Howe (1832-1918), businessman and historian
David J. Weber
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Deinard, Ephraim (1846-1930), Hebrew author, bibliographer, and bookdealer
Jacob Kabakoff
Deinard, Ephraim (11 May 1846–24 June 1930), Hebrew author, bibliographer, and bookdealer, was born in Shossmaken, Courland, Russia, the son of Jekuthiel Gerson Deinard and Leah Cohen. In addition to attending traditional schools of Jewish learning, he also studied secular subjects with private tutors. By age eighteen he was contributing articles on current issues to the Hebrew weekly ...
Article
Drake, Samuel Gardner (1798-1875), bookseller and historian
Samuel Willard Crompton
Drake, Samuel Gardner (11 October 1798–14 June 1875), bookseller and historian, was born in Pittsfield, New Hampshire, the son of Simeon Drake and Love Muchmore Tucke, farmers. Drake was a slender and delicate child who loved the woods near his home more than he did the local school. In 1816 he joined his older brother John Drake and worked as an underclerk for his uncle Samuel J. Tucke, an importer of paints and oils, in Boston. Following a six-month stay in Baltimore on business for his uncle, Drake returned to New Hampshire and taught in a school in Loudon, New Hampshire. This was followed by a schoolteaching stint in New Jersey (1819–1820), a study of medicine in Pittsfield, New Hampshire, and then a return to teaching (1820–1823). Although he did not “find himself” in these endeavors, Drake brought the purposefulness that he had developed to what would become the great passions of his life: collecting antiquarian materials and bookselling....
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King, Stanley (1883-1951), businessman and college president
Edward L. Lach, Jr.
King, Stanley (11 May 1883–28 April 1951), businessman and college president, was born in Troy, New York, the son of Henry Amasa King, a lawyer and judge, and Maria Lyon Flynt. His family’s roots were in the Connecticut Valley, and in 1893 King moved with his family to Springfield, Massachusetts, where he attended the public schools. Enrolling in 1900 in Amherst College, his father’s alma mater, King completed the course in only three years, obtaining an A.B. summa cum laude. After reading law with his father’s firm, he entered Harvard Law School in 1904 as a second-year student, graduating in 1906 with an A.M. (having had only two years in residence at Harvard, he was deemed ineligible for an LL.B.)....
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Rich, Obadiah (1783-1850), diplomat and book dealer
Richard Hollinger
Rich, Obadiah (1783–20 January 1850), diplomat and book dealer, was born in Truro, Massachusetts, the son of Obadiah Rich, a ship captain, and Salome Lombard. About 1789 his family moved to the Boston area, where Rich resided until 1816. Although the details of Rich’s schooling are not known, an acquaintance described him as “a gentleman by birth and education” and “really learned” (Henry Harrisse, ...
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Rosenbach, Abraham Simon Wolf (1876-1952), antiquarian bookseller
Leslie A. Morris
Rosenbach, Abraham Simon Wolf (22 July 1876–01 July 1952), antiquarian bookseller, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Morris Rosenbach, a soft-goods merchant, and Isabella Polock. As a child, A. S. W. Rosenbach, the youngest of seven children, spent many hours in the bookshop of his uncle Moses Polock, a well-known antiquarian bookseller. There he learned to love old books and manuscripts and absorbed much about history and literature. He was the only one of his family to attend college, receiving his Ph.D. in English literature in 1901 from the University of Pennsylvania....
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Sabin, Joseph (1821-1881), bibliographer and bookseller
John Mark Tucker
Sabin, Joseph (06 December 1821–05 June 1881), bibliographer and bookseller, was born in Braunston, Northamptonshire, near Oxford, England, the son of Joseph Sabin and Mary Shirley. He studied in the common schools in Oxford but did not attend a university. At age fourteen he was apprenticed to Oxford book dealer Charles Richards, who taught him bookbinding but transferred him to sales when his bibliophilic interests began to emerge. Thus immersed in books and prints, Sabin grew to be effective with customers and was promoted to general manager, a position that allowed him to buy books. His increasing responsibilities included the preparation of library sale catalogs, which drew him into the art of bibliographic description. In 1842 he left Richards to form a partnership as a bookseller and auctioneer with a man named Winterborne, whose father was an architect and builder in Oxford and whose sister, Mary Ann, Sabin married in 1844. They had two children....
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Sachse, Julius Friedrich (1842-1919), antiquarian, historian, and photographer
Donald F. Durnbaugh
Sachse, Julius Friedrich (22 November 1842–14 November 1919), antiquarian, historian, and photographer, was born in Philadelphia, the son of Johann Heinrich Friedrich Sachse, an artist and designer, and Julianna D. W. Bühler. Julius F. Sachse attended public schools and the Lutheran Academy but had no university education; he was largely a self-educated man. Sachse’s early business career was as a merchant of men’s clothing accessories and a manufacturer of men’s silk shirts. His achievements in shirtmaking were recognized at international trade fairs....
