Background
John Brisben Walker was born on September 10, 1847, at his parents' country house on the Monongahela River, near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was the son of John and Anna (Krepps) Walker.
Walker attended Gonzaga College, in Washington.
Walker attended Georgetown College, in Georgetown.
Walke attended United States Military Academy at West Point, in 1865.
1913
Walker and his wife
Walker attended Gonzaga College, in Washington.
Walker attended Georgetown College, in Georgetown.
Walke attended United States Military Academy at West Point, in 1865.
https://www.amazon.com/Cosmopolitan-Illustrated-Monthly-Magazine-February/dp/B004WXQD16/?tag=2022091-20
https://www.amazon.com/Cosmopolitan-Magazine-February-Brisben-Walker/dp/B01EE75DC4/?tag=2022091-20
John Brisben Walker was born on September 10, 1847, at his parents' country house on the Monongahela River, near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was the son of John and Anna (Krepps) Walker.
Walker attended Gonzaga College, in Washington, and Georgetown College. He also attended United States Military Academy at West Point, in 1865.
Walker came to Cosmopolitan in a roundabout way. He began his career as a military advisor in China, even though he left West Point before graduating. He made money in the burgeoning Appalachian iron industry between 1870 and 1873, but lost his fortune in the economic Panic of 1873. Walker served as editor of the Pittsburgh Telegraph and Washington Daily Chronicle in the state of Washington after the Panic. He then experimented successfully with alfalfa farming in Colorado before purchasing Cosmopolitan from Joseph N. Hallock in 1889.
The new owner and editor envisioned Cosmopolitan as a rival to other popular illustrated magazines of the day, such as McClure’s and Munsey’s. The decade of the 1890s was a colorful period in American magazine history, and the Cosmopolitan, like many other magazines of that time, underwent considerable growth. Walker filled his magazine with illustrated articles on diverse subjects, as well as poetry and fiction. He emphasized women’s issues, featuring - in the space of two months in 1891 - five stories on women, including one written by a woman. He convinced Thomas Edison to serve as an unpaid consultant on scientific issues, including the development of the airplane. Walker also attracted some of the best literary talent of the day to his magazine, including James Russell Lowell, Sarah Ome Jewett, Richard LeGallienne, H. G. Wells, Rudyard Kipling, Robert Louis Stevenson, Mark Twain, Jack London, Edith Wharton, and William Dean Howells (who also served as joint editor of Cosmopolitan for May and June of 1892).
Cosmopolitan was reported to have been produced on presses designed for the finest quality of printing and capable of turning out twenty thousand magazines per day. In 1893 the circulation of Cosmopolitan was one hundred fifty thousand. It was estimated that some three-quarter million people would examine these one hundred fifty thousand copies.
Walker was also responsible for establishing Cosmopolitan University, an experiment providing higher education through correspondence to working class people - including his own sales representatives, who were offered scholarships for successful sales of magazine subscriptions. Between 1898 and 1900, about twelve thousand people applied for admission, far exceeding Walker’s expectations. Although the school closed after two years, Walker continued to maintain a much smaller correspondence school for several years.
John Brisben Walker made his reputation as the editor and publisher of Cosmopolitan magazine between 1889 and 1905. In five years, he built the magazine’s circulation from twenty thousand to four hundred thousand. Walker's many interests - iron mining, growing alfalfa, automobiles, and aviation - are reflected in the diversity of articles (some of which he wrote) in Cosmopolitan. The magazine was also notable for its articles on current affairs and for its poetry, fiction, and literary essays.
Although Walker sold Cosmopolitan to publisher William Randolph Hearst after owning and managing it for around sixteen years, he made the magazine an important force in American cultural life.
Walker is also known as a co-founder of the Locomobile Company of America, who led it through its early successes.
Walker spoke out against the elitism he saw in higher education, urging Congress to establish and fund a national correspondence university.
John Brisben Walker was first married to Emily Strother, but they divorced. Then Walker married his second wife, Ethel Richmond. Their marriage ended in divorce and Walker married his third wife, Iris Calderhead.
From his first marriage Walker had eight children and from the second, four.
