Fleming Hewitt Revell was born on December 11, 1849 in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Fleming Hewitt Revell and Emma (Manning) Revell. The father, a descendant of French Huguenots who fled to the north of Ireland, was a shipbuilder in London until, meeting with reverses, he brought his family to America, and in 1849 to Chicago, where he built boats for the Lake Michigan traffic. Success did not attend him in Chicago either, and the only son had to leave school at nine years of age to help support his mother and three sisters. One of these sisters, Emma, married the evangelist, Dwight L. Moody, and it was under Moody's inspiration that Revell, not yet twenty, began in 1869 to publish Everybody's Paper, a little religious monthly.
Career
A pocket account book, in the possession of his son, shows that he traveled through the Middle West securing subscriptions, five in one town and ten in the next. When the Chicago fire of 1871 burned his entire establishment, he started again. Doubtless the publishing of Moody's sermons, tracts, and other writings helped him to place his business on a firm basis, for these in cloth and paper bindings sold in time by the hundred thousands. To these were added the books of other evangelists suitable for the Moody audience, and by 1880 his list numbered about one hundred titles, besides booklets, gospel tracts, revival hymnals, and Sunday-school periodicals.
A branch of the firm was opened in New York in 1887, and ultimately branches in Toronto, London, and Edinburgh were added. By 1890 he was one of the largest publishers of religious books in America, having gradually widened his scope from strictly evangelical literature. He had a flourishing juvenile department, sold standard Sunday-school libraries of fifty volumes for $25. 75, and distributed all the Sunday-school paraphernalia of the period, including picture cards and colored floral mottoes. He moved to New York about 1906 and some years afterward transferred the headquarters of his company to that city. His sixty years of religious publishing not only gave him a remarkable knowledge of the market possibilities of religious books of all kinds but permitted him to accumulate a comfortable fortune, which he invested wisely. Several years before his death he turned the presidency of his firm over to his son, Fleming Hewitt Revell, Jr. , and became chairman of the board.
Achievements
For years he was active in religious, educational, and financial affairs. Through his earlier association with Moody he developed a strong interest in the Northfield (Massachussets) schools and contributed liberally to them. He was a trustee of the Northfield Seminary and of Wheaton College. He was long treasurer of the American Mission to Lepers and at different times a member of educational and mission boards of the Presbyterian Church. He was also a director of the New York Life Insurance Company. His extensive travels in Europe and the Near East during his yearly vacations gave him, in addition, a wide acquaintance with world problems.
Connections
He had married in 1872 Josephine Barbour of Romeo, Michigan, who died in 1924.
