A Plea for the Abolition of the Duty on Books: To Which is Added Some Remarks on the Present Rulings of the Customs Officials in the Administration of the Law.
George Platt Brett was an American publisher. He is noted for his service as a chairman and publisher of the American division of Macmillan Publishing.
Background
George Platt Brett was born in London on December 8, 1858, the only son among six children of George Edward and Elizabeth (Platt) Brett, both of Kentish stock.
The elder Brett moved to New York City in 1869 to set up an agency for the British publishers Macmillan & Company, bringing his family with him.
Tuberculosis brought an acute threat to his health, and, to get outdoor life, he went to a California ranch as cowhand, later becoming manager of his own ranch. Brett's health returned, but his father's failed, and in 1886 Brett returned to New York. On his father's death in 1890 he was invited to take over the agency.
Education
The boy's formal education was continued until 1874, when, at sixteen, he entered the business as office assistant and city salesman.
Career
In 1896, after the death of Alexander Macmillan, the New York agency was, at Brett's insistence, made a separate American corporation--the Macmillan Company of New York--with Brett having the full powers of president. Under his control there were able department heads but no partners. Brett gave the company initiative, scope, and diversity.
The Macmillan lists covered all fields of publishing and quickly reflected new trends. While taking leadership in the textbook field, Brett had a sensitive judgment for other writing.
The need for adequate distribution led to the establishment of fully-stocked branches in Chicago, Boston, Atlanta, Dallas, and San Francisco, the most complete wholesale system in the industry, and Brett also established agencies in Japan, China, and the Philippines. He had an extraordinary memory for the facts and figures of the largest publisher's list in America. Some ten thousand books were in his catalogue, about six hundred new titles a year.
He retired as president of the Macmillan Company in 1931 and was succeeded by his son, George P. Brett, Jr. , who had joined Macmillan in 1913.
Brett died on 18 September 1936 at Fairfield, Connecticut of a cerebral hemorrhage and was buried in the cemetery there.
Achievements
It was under Brett's presidency the New York agency received an initiative, scope, and diversity. The Macmillan imprint became prized by educators and scholars and respected by readers. In fiction there were years of success with the books of F. Marion Crawford, with the American Winston Churchill, with Owen Wister, James Lane Allen, and Jack London. Other Macmillan authors included Theodore Roosevelt, Ida Tarbell, and Jacob Riis.
More promptly than many publishers, Brett recognized the coming of a renaissance in American poetry, and, to match the English volumes by Masefield and Yeats, he brought to Macmillan Edwin Arlington Robinson, Vachel Lindsay, Edgar Lee Masters, Sara Teasdale, and others. His was also the first house to set up a special department of children's books.
In 1889, Brett was a founding member of the American Publishers Association. Brett also was influential in the success of Winston Churchill and Jack London.
With his grasp of every detail, Brett made quick, sometimes abrupt, judgments, and all important matters for decision came to his desk. With all his intense ambition for the Macmillan list, Brett recognized a responsibility for the trade as a whole and worked with others for the establishment, in 1900, of the American Publishers Association and for healthier conditions for bookselling.
His interest in trade problems appeared in a score of articles published in various periodicals between 1903 and 1928. He argued for the abolition of the duty on books and for a new copyright law and discussed the publisher's service to literature, the need for commercial education, best-sellers, and lowered book postage.
He wrote vigorously and effectively. In addition he advocated the simple life, small farms, and escape from cities.
Quotations:
In a letter to Jack London, dated 27 Dec 1901, "Brett said he believe Jack's fiction represented 'the very best kind of work ' done in America and he wanted to publish all his future writings. "
Membership
Brett was a member of the American Publishers Association.
Personality
In his youth George Brett suffered from tuberculosis, which brought an acute threat to his health. In person, Brett was of medium height, erect, of almost military carriage.
Quotes from others about the person
George Doran called Brett an "Emperor among publishers. "
Churchill once observed Brett "has an undoubted genius for publishing, but he possesses likewise the higher genius of friendship. "
Interests
George Brett took great interest in the growing of trees, especially conifers. This same interest led him to develop, at his winter home in Coconut Grove, Florida, a notable collection of palms.
Connections
On March 10, 1880, George Brett was married at Santa Cruz, California, to Florence Lucy Stikeman, who died five years later. A daughter, Mary Edith Lucy, was the only child of this marriage.
In 1891 he married his second wife, Marie Louise Tostevin, by whom he had three children: Clare, George Platt, and Richard Marion. He moved that year to a farm in Darien, Connecticut, and in 1903 to Greenfield Hill in nearby Fairfield.
Father:
George Edward Brett
book salesman
Mother:
Elizabeth (Platt) Brett
1st wife:
Florence Lucy Stikeman
2nf wife:
Marie Louise Tostevin
Daughter:
Clare Brett
Daughter:
Mary Edith Lucy
Partner:
Frederick Macmillan
Brett assisted Frederick Macmillan with the creation of Macmillan Company of Canada.
