Charles Coffin Little

Background

Charles Coffin Little was born on July 25 1799 in Kennebunk, Maine, United States, the son of David and Sarah (Chase) Little and a descendant of George Little who came to Newbury, Massachussets, in 1640.

Career

Little left Maine as a youth and secured employment in a Boston shipping house, but in 1821, when the small bookstore of Carter, Hilliard & Company advertised for a clerk, he obtained the position. In 1827 the firm was reorganized as Hilliard, Gray & Company, with Little as a member, and in 1837 he became its senior partner. His chief associate thenceforth was James Brown, 1800-1855, formerly an employee of Hilliard. After being known as Charles C. Little & Company for a time, the firm adopted the title of Little & Brown, which in 1847 was changed to Little, Brown & Company.

The business had been greatly increased during Little's connection with it as employee and junior partner, and it continued to grow in importance after he became its head. His particular responsibility was the supervision of the legal publications of the firm, and in a few years his house became the foremost in America in this field. In 1843 and again in 1846 it issued A Catalogue of Law Books Published and For Sale by Charles C. Little and James Brown, and though this list included many imported English works, the number of the firm's own publications was large. Little continued as the principal partner and general manager of the business throughout his life. At his death, the house retained its leadership in the publishing of legal works and was prominent among American publishers of books of a general nature.

Little was active as a capitalist, and to some extent in public affairs. He was selectman of Cambridge in 1836 and 1841, in the lower house of the Massachusetts legislature in 1836 and 1837, and was for many years president of a Cambridge bank, besides being an active director of a gas company and a street railroad. Since he employed a considerable part of his personal fortune in the erection of buildings that did much to introduce a more convenient type of structure for both residential and business purposes, his influence on the economic and material development of his community was widely recognized. The day after his death the "booksellers of Boston" held a special meeting in recognition of his services as a publisher and as a citizen.

Achievements

• Little was best known as a co-founder of Little, Brown & Company. Under his leadership, it became the prominent publishing firm of law books in the United States. In addition, it had garnered fame for printing dictionaries and grammar books, works of historical collections of letters.

Works

More photos

• book

  • A Catalogue of Law Books, Published and for Sale by Charles C. Little and James Brown

    (Little, Charles, and James Brown. Catalogue of Law Book...)

Membership

Little was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1855.

Connections

Little was married on January 1, 1829, to Sarah Anne Hilliard, daughter of his partner, William Hilliard, and sister of Francis Hilliard. After her death on August 29, 1848, he was married, January 18, 1854, to Abby, daughter of Henry Wheaton of Providence, Rhode Island. He left four sons and one daughter, all by the first marriage.

Father:

David Little

Mother:

Sarah (Chase) Little

Spouse:

Abby Wheaton

Spouse:

Sarah Anne Hilliard

References

• Descendants of George Little, who Came to Newburn, Massachusetts, in 1640
• Prominent families of New York; being an account in biographical form of individuals and families distinguished as representatives of the social, professional and civic life of New York city