Charles Scribner was an American famous publisher.
Background
Charles was born on February 21, 1821 in New York City, New York, United States, the son of Uriah Rogers Scribner and the latter's second wife, Betsey Hawley. He was descended from Benjamin Scrivener, who was in Norwalk, Connecticut, in 1680; the family name was changed to its present form after 1742. Uriah Scribner was a prosperous merchant and gave his son every educational advantage.
Education
Charles Scribner was graduated from the College of New Jersey (Princeton) in 1840 and studied law but because of bad health gave up practice.
Career
In 1846, with Isaac D. Baker as partner, he turned to publishing. The firm of Baker & Scribner made its bow in modest quarters, which formed part of the chapel of the old Brick Meeting House at Park Row and Nassau Street. Baker died and Scribner proceeded to carry on alone, under his own name, in 1850.
In 1857 he took in another partner, Charles Welford, organizing the firm of Scribner & Welford to import books, though the publishing continued under his own name. Andrew C. Armstrong was admitted to partnership in 1864, and Edward Seymour in 1869, but the name of the publishing firm remained the same until the death of the founder in 1871, when it became Scribner, Armstrong & Co. , the importing firm being Scribner, Welford & Armstrong. It was in 1878 that the final form of Charles Scribner's Sons was established.
The Scribner list, from the outset, was strong in theological and philosophical publications, written by leading authorities, especially those of the Presbyterian Church, such as the Alexanders, Archibald and James W. , and Presidents Theodore Dwight Woolsey and Noah Porter of Yale. Much attention was also given to secular literature. The once widely popular works of Joel T. Headley, Napoleon and his Marshals (1847) and Washington and His Generals (1847), bore the Scribner imprint.
Publications of a more general character included People I Have Met (1850), by Nathaniel P. Willis, a book which greatly heightened the reputation of the house. Charles Scribner sponsored a periodical entitled Hours at Home, a miscellany edited by the Reverend J. M. Sherwood. It lasted for nearly five years (1865 - 70) but the fastidious publisher was not quite satisfied.
He fulfilled his ambition when in November 1870, he brought out the first number of Scribner's Monthly. It was launched auspiciously under the editorship of Dr. J. G. Holland, assisted by Richard Watson Gilder, but in 1881 was sold to the Century Company and became The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine. Scribner's Magazine was founded in 1887 by the younger Charles Scribner.
He died at Luzerne, Switzerland.
Achievements
Views
Quotations:
"I want to issue a magazine, " Charles Scribner said, "that is handsomely illustrated, beautifully printed, and that shall have as contributors the best authors of the day. I should like to make it different from any now published and to reach also other classes of readers".
Connections
Scribner was married, June 13, 1848, to Emma Elizabeth Blair, the daughter of John Insley Blair of Blairstown, New Jersey, a capitalist who was active in railroading and other large business affairs. His sons, John Blair, Charles, and Arthur Hawley, carried on his work.