Background
Jørgen Wright Cappelen was born in Porsgrund in 1805 as the ninth and last child of ship-owner Ulrich Fredrich von Cappelen (1770–1820) and his wife Benedicte Henrikke, née Aall (1772–1812).
Jørgen Wright Cappelen was born in Porsgrund in 1805 as the ninth and last child of ship-owner Ulrich Fredrich von Cappelen (1770–1820) and his wife Benedicte Henrikke, née Aall (1772–1812).
Jørgen Wright Cappelen started theological studies in Basel, but abandoned these. He instead moved to Kristiania and founded J.W. Cappelens Forlag, a publishing house and bookshop, in 1829. The publications were largely centered on religious topics.
In the second half of the nineteenth century, they rather concentrated on school books
Cappelen was the first chairman of the Norwegian Booksellers Association, serving in that capacity from 1851 to 1870. The bookshop company was liquidated in 1973, but the publishing house still exists.
