Background
Ginn was born in Orland, Maine on February 14, 1838, into a Universalist farming family who were descendents of early settlers of Maryland, Virginia, and Salem, Massachusetts. His parents were James and Sarah (Blood) Ginn.
peace advocate philanthropist publisher
Ginn was born in Orland, Maine on February 14, 1838, into a Universalist farming family who were descendents of early settlers of Maryland, Virginia, and Salem, Massachusetts. His parents were James and Sarah (Blood) Ginn.
Ginn attended school intermittently, but his persistent ill health induced his parents to place him as a cook in a logging camp at the age of twelve. At fourteen, he shipped on a fishing schooner bound for the Grand Banks of Newfoundland.
On his return he attended the local high school, supplementing his training at the seminary at Bucksport. Then by “teaching winters, working on the farm and going to Grand Banks summers” he was able to finish his preparation for college at Westbrook Seminary.
At twenty, he entered Tufts College and graduated in the class of 1862, although he was handicapped by an affliction of the eyes which made it necessary for friends to read his lessons aloud to him for weeks at a time.
Shortly after obtaining his degree, Ginn became a traveling book-agent; but in 1867 he opened a publishing house of his own in Boston, soon admitting his brother Frederick as a partner under the firm-name of Ginn Brothers.
In 1876, D. C. Heath joined the company, which after 1881 was known as Ginn, Heath & Company. When this partnership was dissolved in 1885, the name of Ginn & Company was adopted.
It assumed an important function in spreading information on international affairs and in endeavoring to promote good-will among mankind, especially through the publication of a series of World Peace Foundation pamphlets, covering various phases of foreign politics.
In the latter part of his life, he had a beautiful home in Winchester, Massachusets. On December 15, 1913, he suffered a paralytic stroke, which was followed by pneumonia.
After lying unconscious for five weeks, he died and was buried in the Wildwood Cemetery, in Winchester.
(This reproduction was printed from a digital file created...)
(Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We h...)
( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)
( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)
Quotations: "Educating the people of all nations to a full knowledge of the waste and destructiveness of war and of preparation for war, its evil effects on present social conditions and on the wellbeing of future generations, and to promote international justice and the brotherhood of man, and generally by every practical means to promote peace and goodwill among all mankind. "
A high-minded idealist, Ginn, fortunately, had the practical qualities which earned him the means of putting many of his theories into actual operation.
Ginn married, in 1869, Clara Glover, by whom he had three children. After her death in 1890, he married, in 1894, Marguerita Francesca Grebe, of Philadelphia, by whom he had a son and a daughter.
