Book 3 — PUBLISHERS.

Frank Nelson Doubleday.

The founder of the flourishing publishing house of Doubleday, Page & Co., of New York, is Frank Nelson Doubleday, who was born in Brooklyn in 1862, being the son of W. E. Doubleday. He was educated at the Polytechnic institute of the City of Churches, and during his school days gave indications of his future career, for before he had finished his studies he had established quite a flourishing job printing business among his schoolmates and friends. When fifteen years of age he got a position with the Scribners as errand boy, remaining with the firm for many years in a number of capacities. He founded the publication entitled “The Book Buyer,” and when Scribner’s Magazine was started he was made its manager and publisher. The average young man would have been contented with this position, which was honorable, professionally, and lucrative, financially. But young Doubleday was ambitious, and so in 1897 he joined the S. S. McClure Company. After a brief stay with them, he formed the Doubleday & McClure Co., book publishers. The firm flourished and published many works of well-known authors, including Rudyard Kipling’s “Day’s Work.” It was at this time that a close friendship was formed between Mr. Doubleday and the famous author. In 1900 Doubleday, Page & Co. came into existence, associated with the senior partner being W. H. Page, former editor of the Atlantic, and H. W. Lanier, who is a son of the poet, Sydney Lanier, and others. The firm established World’s Work, a magazine that achieved an immediate success. Another venture of the company was “Country Life in America,” which is typographically and artistically very beautiful. This magazine, too, was an emphatic success. He married Neltje de Graff, a descendant of a historic Dutch family. Mrs. Doubleday is the author of a number of works, many of which have to do with natural history subjects, including “Bird Neighbors” and “Nature’s Garden,” both of which are well known to students of nature.

Isaac Kauffman Funk.

Originality has been a powerful factor in the career of the noted clergyman, editor and publisher, the Rev. Dr. Isaac Kauffman Funk. He was born at Clifton, Greene county, Ohio, September 10, 1839. His parents, John and Martha (Kauffman) Funk, were descendants of early Holland-Swiss emigrants to Pennsylvania. Graduating from Whittenberg college, Springfield, Ohio, with the degree of D.D., he from this same institution, in 1896, received the degree of LL.D. From 1861 to 1872 he was engaged in active work in the Lutheran ministry. At the end of that time he resigned his pastorate and traveled extensively in Europe, Egypt and Palestine. Upon returning to America he became associate editor of the Christian Radical. In 1876 he founded and published in New York city the Metropolitan Pulpit, now the Homiletic Review, acting as its editor-in-chief. His former college classmate, Adam W. Wagnalls, a lawyer of Atchison, Kansas, became in 1877 his partner, and the firm name was changed to I. K. Funk & Co., and later, in 1891, to Funk & Wagnalls Co. Their several branch houses in Canada and England, as well as their many published books which have met with public favor, testified to the business successes of the members of the concern. Dr. Funk is the founder of some well-known periodicals, among which The Voice, The Literary Digest and The Missionary Review are the most important. He also published a standard dictionary of the English language, of which he was editor-in-chief. The production of this work was a gigantic undertaking, costing nearly one million dollars.

William Randolph Hearst.

It is usually supposed, and rightly so, that a young man who inherits much wealth is not very likely to make his mark in the world. The career of William Randolph Hearst furnishes an exception to the general rule, however, for, in spite of being handicapped by a comfortable fortune, he has achieved no small reputation as a newspaper editor and publisher. Mr. Hearst was born in San Francisco, California, and is the son of the late United States Senator George F. Hearst. He is the owner of the San Francisco Examiner and other well-known newspapers. In 1895 he bought the New York Journal, later purchasing the Advertiser and consolidating it with the Journal to secure a franchise. In 1900 he founded the Chicago American, which paper has the largest morning circulation in the city in which it is published. At present Mr. Hearst is publishing altogether five large newspapers: two in New York, two in Chicago and one in San Francisco. He is a firm believer in the theory of so-called “yellow journalism,” claiming that with its help he reaches the masses. His papers are noted chiefly for their brilliant editorials. Mr. Hearst advocates the cause of the laboring classes, is a member of congress, has been mentioned as a possible candidate for the Presidential nomination on the Democratic ticket in 1904.

Edward Everett Higgins.

If you should ask Edward E. Higgins, the publisher of Success, what are the characteristics which have given him his present position in the publishing world, he would doubtless reply, “Courage, persistence and patience.” He has had an unusually varied training and experience. He was born on April 4, 1864, in Chelsea, Massachusetts, and, after a preliminary education in the local grammar and high schools, which were then considered among the best in the state, he entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was graduated as an electrical engineer in 1886. He obtained there the mathematical training which has remained with him ever since, and which has contributed not a little to his acknowledged power of distinguishing between the possible and the impossible in both engineering and business matters. Foreseeing the great future of the electric street railroad, he became associated, in its earliest development, with the Sprague and Edison companies, and it was largely through his efforts that electricity was first introduced into Buffalo and other cities of New York state. Acquiring a large fund of information on street railroad matters at home and abroad, Mr. Higgins became, in 1893, the editor of the Street Railway Journal, and has won an international reputation as a statistical, engineering and financial expert on street railway matters. In 1899 he perceived an opportunity to develop a large and important home publication from what was then a small and struggling periodical—Success—and acquired an interest, intending that it should be merely a side issue. But the phenomenally rapid growth of Success soon called for Mr. Higgins’ entire time, and the result is seen in the fact that Success, with its circulation of over 300,000, now, after only four years’ time, is one of the first half-dozen American magazines in circulation, prestige and general standing, and no paper is more useful or valuable in the home.

Louis Klopsch.

No better example of the zealous religious worker, disinterested benefactor and talented journalist can be cited than the subject of this sketch, Louis Klopsch. He was born in Germany, March 26, 1852, receiving only a common school education. In 1886, after having removed to New York, he married May E., daughter of the Rev. Stephen Merritt. Becoming interested in newspaper work, he became the proprietor of the Daily Reporter, New York. He was also owner of the Pictorial Associated Press from 1884 to 1890, and has had charge of the Talmage sermon syndicate since 1885. On his return from Palestine, in 1890, he became connected with the Christian Herald, which he purchased in 1892. Since that time he has, through his paper, raised and distributed nearly $2,000,000 in international charities. In recognition of his relief work, during the Russian famine of 1892, he was received by the Czar of Russia, and in 1898 the English and Indian governments extended official thanks to him for his services in behalf of famine-stricken India. President McKinley appointed him one of the three commissioners in charge of the relief of the starving Reconcentradoes in Cuba, and for this purpose he raised nearly $200,000. In the spring of 1900, accompanied by Gilson Willets, Mr. Klopsch visited the famine and cholera fields of India, and through his paper, in six months’ time, secured a fund of $700,000 for their relief. He has also guaranteed the support of five thousand famine orphans in India.

Samuel Sidney McClure.

One of the leading magazine publishers of to-day, Samuel Sidney McClure, was born in County Antrim, Ireland, February 17, 1857. Being an ambitious youth, he naturally turned to America, “the land of opportunity.” By his own earnest efforts he succeeded in securing a liberal education, being graduated from Knox college, Illinois, in 1882, obtaining the degree of A. M. in 1887. September 4, 1883, he was married to Harriet, daughter of Professor Albert Hurd, of Knox college, Galesburg, Illinois. He established, in November, 1884, a newspaper syndicate, and in 1893 he founded McClure’s Magazine, which ranks among the most popular periodicals of the day. His national reputation is largely due to this enterprise. His executive ability has made him the president of the S. S. McClure Company, and he has been a trustee of Knox college since 1894. Mr. McClure has discovered and recognized a human need, and by filling that need is realizing his well-merited success.

Frank Andrew Munsey.

The rise of Frank A. Munsey from a poor postoffice clerk in Augusta, Maine, to the head of one of the most profitable publishing houses in the world has been as rapid as it is remarkable. His only capital when he began his current business were his ideas and his nerve; yet, in less than ten years, he has made a fortune. Mr. Munsey was born in Mercer, Maine, August 21, 1854, the son of Andrew C. and Mary J. Munsey. After securing an ordinary education in the public schools of Maine, he began his business career in a country store, and later became manager of the Western Union telegraph office of Augusta, Maine. When, in 1882, he went to New York and started the Golden Argosy, a juvenile weekly (now the adult monthly, The Argosy), his friends thought he was as unwise as he was reckless. It is said that some of them actually proposed an inquiry into his sanity. Having made money by The Argosy, he invested it, in 1890, in a magazine, launching Munsey’s Weekly, which he converted October, 1891, into Munsey’s Magazine. He now also publishes The Puritan and the Junior Munsey, besides newspapers in New York and Washington. Although more widely known as a publisher than an author, he has written several books, including Afloat in a Great City, 1887; Boy Broker, 1888; Tragedy of Errors, 1889; Under Fire, 1890, and Deering Forte, 1895.

Joseph Pulitzer.

Extraordinary energy and executive ability and a Napoleonic faculty of perceiving and utilizing the talents of others, are the qualities upon which the journalist and publisher, Joseph Pulitzer, has built his reputation and his fortune. He was born in Buda-Pesth, Hungary, April 10, 1847, and, after receiving a classical education in his native city, came to the United States at the age of sixteen. For two years he served as a private soldier in the Federal Army, and, afterward, failing to gain a foothold in New York city, he went to St. Louis, where he became a reporter on the Westliche Post, a German newspaper then edited by Carl Schurz. Studying law, he was next admitted to the bar of Missouri. Then he was made managing editor of the Post, and in 1869 was sent to the Missouri legislature. In 1878 he bought the St. Louis Dispatch, uniting it with the Evening Post as the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, which is now one of the most successful publications of the west. In 1883 Mr. Pulitzer purchased the New York World, which, thanks to his journalistic genius, is now one of the most widely read newspapers published in New York city. He was elected to congress in New York for the term of 1885 to 1887. In 1890 he erected in Park Row one of the most striking and costly newspaper buildings in the United States. In 1896 he was a strong advocate of the National (gold standard) Democratic party. Mr. Pulitzer has always been distinguished by his generous and courteous treatment of his subordinates.

John Brisben Walker.

Among the leading magazine editors of to-day is John Brisben Walker, the author and publisher of the Cosmopolitan Magazine, who is also the founder of Cosmopolitan university. He was born in western Pennsylvania, September 10, 1847, and is the son of John and Anna (Krepps) Walker, and his early education was received at Gonzaga Classical School, Washington, D. C. In 1863, he entered Georgetown university, remaining there until he received appointment to the United States military academy at West Point, in 1865. In 1868, however, he entered the Chinese military service, in which he remained for two years. Returning to America, he was married, in 1870, to Emily, daughter of General David Hunter Strother. For the next three years he was engaged in manufacturing in western Pennsylvania. In 1872 he was a candidate for congress on the Republican ticket, but was defeated. During the panic of 1873 his entire fortune was swept away. But, in spite of political and financial failure, Mr. Walker rapidly forged to the front again. He next entered in journalism, and for three years was managing editor of the Washington (D. C.) Chronicle. Then he moved to Colorado, and for about nine years was a successful alfalfa farmer in that State. In 1889 he located in New York, and bought the Cosmopolitan Magazine, of which he is still the editor. The entire plant was moved to Irvington-on-Hudson in 1895. While Mr. Walker has achieved notable success in the magazine business, the most notable work of his life was the founding of the Cosmopolitan university in 1896.