Background
Scribner was born in New York City to Uriah Rogers Scribner and Betsey Hawley.
Scribner was born in New York City to Uriah Rogers Scribner and Betsey Hawley.
He attended the Lawrenceville School from 1834 to 1837. After a year"s study at New York University, he entered Princeton University and graduated with the class of 1840.
He began the study of law, but was obliged by ill health to make a trip to Europe. Unlike traditional houses, which were generally outgrowths of printing companies or book sellers, theirs would exist purely as a publisher. This had an influence on the character of its publications, which were chiefly confined to the works of contemporary authors.
With the death of Baker in 1850, Scribner gained control of the company, renaming it Charles Scribner and then Charles Scribner and Company.
With Charles Welford (who died in May 1885), he formed in 1857 the house of Scribner and Welford for the importation of foreign books In 1865, Charles Scribner and Company made its first venture into magazine publishing with Hours at Home, a monthly magazine.
In 1870 this magazine was merged into Scribner"s Monthly under the editorship of Josiah G. Holland, and published by a separate company, Scribner and Company, with Doctor Holland and Roswell Smith as part owners. Mr. Seymour died 28 April 1877, and in 1878, when Mr.
Armstrong retired, the firm-name was changed to Charles Scribner"s Sons, under which form the business was conducted after 1879 by Charles Scribner and Arthur H. Scribner, younger brothers of John Blair.
The elder Charles Scribner married Emma Elizabeth Blair (1827–1869), daughter of the magnate John Insley Blair, in 1846. He died of typhoid on August 26, 1871 while traveling in Lucerne, Switzerland. He is interred in the family plot in The Woodlawn cemetery in The Bronx, New York City.
