Background
William Henry Appleton was born on January 27, 1814 in Haverhill, Massachusetts, United States, the son of Daniel Appleton and Hannah Adams.
William Henry Appleton was born on January 27, 1814 in Haverhill, Massachusetts, United States, the son of Daniel Appleton and Hannah Adams.
His schooling ceased at sixteen, when he entered his father's business and was given an opportunity to build up a book department.
A very formal and businesslike contract is still preserved (in the possession of Mary Appleton, his grand-daughter), which marks the formation of a partnership with his father, in 1838, under the firm name "D. Appleton & Co. " Caution that ever characterized the father was thrown to the winds, or at any rate to one side, by the dash and enterprise of the son, and the firm of brothers, organized under William's leadership on their father's retirement in 1848, expanded the publishing business with amazing rapidity.
It is said that the revival of the Webster Spelling Book kept one press busy all the time for several years, the sales in a single year (1866) totalling 1, 596, 000. There were hundreds of other books of an educational character, such as the Perkins Arithmetics, the Cornell Geographies, the Quackenbos Histories. Appleton's was the medium through which the scientific ideas of Darwin, Huxley, and Spencer came to the American public. The Popular Science Monthlyis traceable to this enthusiasm for things scientific, the first issue coming from the Appleton press in 1872.
The first Appleton's Cyclopedia of Biography appeared in 1856. Travelers' guides began also in this decade, one of the earliest being Navigation Guide for United States and Canada (1852). In the period following the Civil War the firm was keen to realize the popular veneration of the war hero, and books about Farragut, Porter, Grant, Sheridan, Sherman, and many other commanders, bore the Appleton imprint. Later, Confederate leaders became accepted authors, e. g. , Jefferson Davis, The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government. Printing that was formerly done on the outside had now become an integral part of the firm's business.
An early printing plant in Franklin St. , New York City, was outgrown and a factory covering the larger part of a city block was erected (1868) in Williamsburg; over 600 workmen were employed there. Enlarged sales quarters had also become necessary and the Society Library Building at 346 Broadway was purchased and remodeled. Gleason's Pictorial Drawing-Room Companion (Boston), June 24, 1854, pictures and describes the retail salesroom on the ground floor with its "fourteen Corinthian columns in imitation of Sienna marble" and its "book-cases and shelving of plain oak, in length 270 feet. "
Appleton was an earnest and active advocate of international copyright and was president of the American Publishers Copyright League in 1887. The Appleton Church Home at Macon, Georgia, erected and endowed by him, is evidence of his interest in the church and in humanity.
In the latter part of his life he occupied the Appleton Mansion in the Riverdale section of Bronx Borough.
Appleton was a prominent publisher for sixty years. His firm published works by Lewis Carroll, Arthur Conan Doyle, Charles Darwin and many other notable people. Appleton City, Missouri was named after the publisher in appreciation of his 1870 donation to the town's library. His home at Wave Hill in the Riverdale section of Bronx, New York was turned into a botanic garden.
He married Mary Worthen of Lowell, Massachussets, April 16, 1844, and had two sons and two daughters.
