Charles Scribner was an American publisher who co-founded Baker & Scribner in New York City in 1846 and built it into a major family publishing enterprise. After Isaac D. Baker’s death, Scribner directed the firm’s expansion from religious books into contemporary American literature, foreign-book importing, and magazine publishing.
Background
Charles Scribner was born on February 21, 1821, in New York City, to Uriah Rogers Scribner, a successful merchant, and Betsey Hawley Scribner. His early life unfolded in a rapidly expanding commercial city whose publishing and bookselling trades were becoming central to American cultural life.
Scribner initially studied law with a New York City attorney, but ill health interrupted his legal plans and led him to travel to Europe. After returning to New York, he entered publishing with Isaac D. Baker, a local dry-goods merchant, creating a business that was organized as a publishing house rather than as an extension of a printing establishment or bookseller.
Education
Scribner attended the Lawrenceville School from 1834 to 1837. The school, founded in New Jersey in the early nineteenth century, developed as a college-preparatory institution serving the educational needs of the American Northeast.
He studied for approximately one year at New York University before entering the College of New Jersey, now Princeton University. He graduated with the class of 1840. Princeton, founded in the colonial period and then known as the College of New Jersey, was one of the leading American colleges for classical and professional preparation during Scribner’s student years.
Scribner began his professional life in publishing in New York City in 1846, when he and Isaac D. Baker established Baker & Scribner. The firm opened in rooms leased from the Brick Church Chapel and operated as a dedicated publishing business rather than as a printer or bookseller. Its early list included religious works and books by contemporary American authors, including J. T. Headley’s Napoleon and His Marshals, which became an important early commercial success.
After Baker died in 1850, Scribner assumed full responsibility for the enterprise, which became Charles Scribner & Co. The firm continued to publish religious and theological works while also developing a broader literary list. Its publication of an American edition of Johann Peter Lange’s Biblical Commentary on the Holy Scriptures in the 1860s demonstrated its capacity to undertake large, scholarly multivolume projects.
In 1856 Scribner joined John Blair Scribner and Edward Seymour in the partnership Scribner, Armstrong & Co. He also formed Scribner & Welford with Charles Welford in 1857 to import foreign books. These businesses connected the New York publishing trade with both domestic authorship and the international circulation of books.
The firm entered magazine publishing in 1865 with Hours at Home. In 1870, Scribner and his associates organized a separate company to publish Scribner’s Monthly, extending the enterprise beyond books into illustrated periodical publishing. Scribner died of typhoid in Lucerne, Switzerland, on August 26, 1871; his eldest son, John Blair Scribner, subsequently assumed leadership of the family business.
Achievements
Scribner co-founded Baker & Scribner in 1846, establishing a dedicated publishing house that helped shift American publishing toward the development and commercial distribution of contemporary authors rather than dependence on printing operations and British reprints.
After Isaac D. Baker’s death, Scribner directed the firm’s expansion into religious scholarship, foreign-book importing, and literary and magazine publishing, laying the institutional foundation for the later Charles Scribner’s Sons publishing dynasty.
Scribner helped establish Scribner’s Monthly in 1870, extending the family enterprise into illustrated periodical publishing and creating a platform that became associated with American literary and cultural writing.
Connections
Scribner married Emma Elizabeth Blair in 1846. She was the daughter of John Insley Blair, a prominent railroad investor, and died in 1869.
They had at least four children who became connected with the family’s publishing or cultural networks: John Blair Scribner, Emma Locke Scribner, Charles Scribner, and Arthur Hawley Scribner. John Blair succeeded his father in managing the publishing firm after 1871, while Charles and Arthur later became senior figures in Charles Scribner’s Sons.
Father:
Uriah Rogers Scribner
A successful merchant in New York City.
Mother:
Betsey Hawley Scribner
Wife:
Emma Elizabeth Blair
Daughter of railroad investor John Insley Blair; she married Scribner in 1846 and died in 1869.
Son:
John Blair Scribner
Succeeded his father in managing the family publishing business after 1871.
Daughter:
Emma Locke Scribner
Later married Walter Cranston Larned.
Son:
Charles Scribner
Later became a leading figure in Charles Scribner’s Sons.
Son:
Arthur Hawley Scribner
Later became president of Charles Scribner’s Sons.
References
American National Biography: Charles Scribner
Biographical reference account documenting Scribner’s birth, education, law studies, partnership with Isaac D. Baker, publishing career, marriage, and family.
2000
Charles Scribner’s Sons: An Illustrated Chronology
Princeton University chronology documenting the founding and successive reorganizations of Baker & Scribner, Charles Scribner & Co., Scribner, Armstrong & Co., Scribner & Welford, and the firm’s magazine ventures.
Charles Scribner’s Sons Art Reference Department Records
Smithsonian archival guide describing the firm’s founding, Scribner’s direction after Baker’s death, its religious and scholarly publishing, magazine expansion, and Scribner’s death in Lucerne.
2025
About Scribner
Institutional history of Scribner describing its founding by Charles Scribner in 1846, early religious publishing, transition toward literature, and development of magazine publishing.
Princetonians in Print
Princeton University Archives reference identifying Charles Scribner as a member of the class of 1840 and documenting his place among Princeton graduates associated with publishing.
