Roswell Smith was an American lawyer and publisher.
Background
Roswell was born on March 30, 1829 at Lebanon, Connecticut, United States, the son of Asher Ladd Smith and his second wife, Wealthy Pratt. Asher Smith, farmer and business man, wrote How to Get Rich, and his brother, Roswell Chamberlain Smith, was the author of numerous textbooks in grammar, arithmetic, and geography. The boy was named for this uncle, but in mature life rarely used his middle name.
Education
He entered Brown University as a student in the two-year English and scientific course. The record books of the university show that his marks were consistently high; the lowest, 83, was in French. After honorable dismissal, May 6, 1850, he studied law in Hartford, under Thomas C. Perkins.
Career
In 1843 Smith went to New York to enter the employ of his uncle's publishers, Paine & Burgess. In 1868, as a result of a successful practice and fortunate investments in real estate, Smith was able to retire and go to Europe.
He had conceived the idea of buying a newspaper or a magazine upon his return, and when, by arrangement, he met Josiah Gilbert Holland at Geneva, the two worked out plans for a new magazine to encourage American art and literature. A warm friendship developed between them and upon their return to the United States in 1870, they joined with Charles Scribner, the publisher of Holland's works, in the corporation of Scribner & Company, which in November 1870 published the first issue of Scribner's Monthly.
In 1873, Smith proposed the publication of a high-class magazine for children, and accordingly St. Nicholas, edited by Mary Elizabeth Mapes Dodge, was sponsored by the firm. In the face of the financial panic of that year Smith held out for the purchase and merging with the new magazine of several juvenile periodicals, and the outcome completely vindicated his judgment. In 1881, Holland, in ill health, sold his interest in the company to Smith, and later Smith also purchased the Scribner interest, which gave him control of the magazine. This purchase, however, carried the requirement that he change the name of the company and of the periodical, and in this way Scribner's Monthly became the Century.
Smith first conceived the idea of The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia, which was his chief interest for the next years. That it was completed before his death was, to him, a great source of comfort.
In addition to his activities as president of the Century Company, he was interested in educational work, especially in the South; Lincoln Hall, at Berea College.
He died of Bright's disease and paralysis, at his home in New York, after an illness of three years.
Achievements
Views
Holding the enthusiastic belief that American publications could win praise and financial success in foreign countries, Smith demonstrated his faith by spending large sums of money, personally arranging the details involved in placing his magazines before English readers.
Personality
Smith was tall, with a leonine head, and made a commanding appearance. He loved his home, his family, and a few friends, but he was not fond of "social life. " He felt that a man should be useful in a public way, and he was too busy trying to be useful to have time for trivial pleasures.
Smith was determined, that he should be the best in the publicistic field, regardless of expense. He had two principles that he followed rigidly: work hard; and when you make a promise, hold fast to it, regardless of consequences.
Connections
In 1852 he married Annie Goodrich Ellsworth, daughter of Henry Leavitt Ellsworth. They had one child.