John Jewett

August 16, 1814 (age 69)

Lebanon, York County, Maine, United States

As a boy Jewett worked in a bindery and bookstore at Salem, Massachusetts. In 1847, when for some years he had been proprietor of a book and music store of his own, he moved his business to Boston and enlarged it to include publishing. His first offerings consisted of a series of school texts and graded readers. Jewett supported the cause of abolition, and when he read the installments of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, then appearing as a serial in an abolitionist paper, the National Era, he made overtures to the author with a view to publishing the story in book form. On March 13, 1852, an agreement was signed whereby Mrs. Stowe was to receive a royalty of ten percent. Soon the unexampled sales began; the book was issued in two volumes on March 20. Ten thousand copies were sold in a few days, and over three hundred thousand within a year, and eight power-presses, running day and night, were barely able to keep pace with the demand for it. Jewett's profits may be estimated from the fact that as early as July 1852 Mrs. Stowe's royalties already amounted to $10, 000. Jewett lost no time in pushing the book; he visited Washington, where in the approving company of Seward and Sumner, he brought it to the attention of many national leaders; he made plans for a translation into German; and he promptly issued Mrs. Stowe's Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin. His career was at its height about 1855, at which time he had a home office in Boston and a branch in Cleveland, Ohio. In that year the firm issued a catalogue of publications which listed, among other things, tracts on temperance and abolition, theological works by Professor Leonard Woods of Andover and by Lyman Beecher, a history of California, an encyclopedia of music, Maria S. Cummins' popular Lamplighter, and the augmented edition of Margaret Fuller's Woman in the Nineteenth Century, as well as one work against Roman Catholicism and one against the Rochester brand of Spiritualism. The panic of 1857 weakened him; he published a few titles in the years preceding the outbreak of the Civil War, but the book trade was depressed, and he decided to give up both publishing and bookselling. After a visit to England in the late fifties he established a watch factory in Roxbury which he operated for several years. Attempting to establish himself in one business after another, he was in turn a purveyor of "Peruvian Syrup, " an agent for a safety match company, and a negotiator of patents. In 1866 he left Boston for New York City, where he eventually relinquished his work in patents to return to bookselling in a quiet way. Though he came again to cherish the ambition of publishing, in this revived role Jewett cut no figure of consequence. He died on May 14, 1884 in Orange, New Jersey.

John Punchard Jewett

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publisher

Background

Jewett was born on August 16, 1814, in Lebanon, Maine, the eldest son of the Rev. Paul Jewett and Eleanor M. Punchard. He was a brother of Charles Coffin Jewett.

Career

As a boy Jewett worked in a bindery and bookstore at Salem, Massachusetts. In 1847, when for some years he had been proprietor of a book and music store of his own, he moved his business to Boston and enlarged it to include publishing. His first offerings consisted of a series of school texts and graded readers. Jewett supported the cause of abolition, and when he read the installments of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, then appearing as a serial in an abolitionist paper, the National Era, he made overtures to the author with a view to publishing the story in book form. On March 13, 1852, an agreement was signed whereby Mrs. Stowe was to receive a royalty of ten percent. Soon the unexampled sales began; the book was issued in two volumes on March 20. Ten thousand copies were sold in a few days, and over three hundred thousand within a year, and eight power-presses, running day and night, were barely able to keep pace with the demand for it. Jewett's profits may be estimated from the fact that as early as July 1852 Mrs. Stowe's royalties already amounted to $10, 000.

Jewett lost no time in pushing the book; he visited Washington, where in the approving company of Seward and Sumner, he brought it to the attention of many national leaders; he made plans for a translation into German; and he promptly issued Mrs. Stowe's Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin. His career was at its height about 1855, at which time he had a home office in Boston and a branch in Cleveland, Ohio. In that year the firm issued a catalogue of publications which listed, among other things, tracts on temperance and abolition, theological works by Professor Leonard Woods of Andover and by Lyman Beecher, a history of California, an encyclopedia of music, Maria S. Cummins' popular Lamplighter, and the augmented edition of Margaret Fuller's Woman in the Nineteenth Century, as well as one work against Roman Catholicism and one against the Rochester brand of Spiritualism.

The panic of 1857 weakened him; he published a few titles in the years preceding the outbreak of the Civil War, but the book trade was depressed, and he decided to give up both publishing and bookselling. After a visit to England in the late fifties he established a watch factory in Roxbury which he operated for several years. Attempting to establish himself in one business after another, he was in turn a purveyor of "Peruvian Syrup, " an agent for a safety match company, and a negotiator of patents. In 1866 he left Boston for New York City, where he eventually relinquished his work in patents to return to bookselling in a quiet way.

Though he came again to cherish the ambition of publishing, in this revived role Jewett cut no figure of consequence. He died on May 14, 1884 in Orange, New Jersey.

Achievements

Jewett is best known for first publishing Uncle Tom's Cabin in book form in 1852. He was actively interested in public affairs and was a member of the first Anti-slavery Association in 1835.

Connections

On February 15, 1860, occurred the death of his first wife, Harriette Cobb, whom Jewett had married in 1837, and on June 20, 1861, he married Helen Crane, who was to survive him.

Father:: Paul Jewett
Mother:: Eleanor M. Punchard
Spouse:: Helen Crane
Spouse:: Harriette Cobb

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John Punchard Jewett

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