biography
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1749–1831)
|
| biography:
| Printer and publisher, born in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. The foremost 18th-c American publisher, he learned his trade as a young apprentice, co-founded in Boston a tabloid called the Massachusetts Spy (1770) and, soon becoming sole owner, made it a pro-patriot organ. After fighting in the American Revolution, he returned to build up a prosperous printing, publishing, and retail bookselling business, centered in Worcester, MA with branches in several cities. He published over 400 titles, including the most important literary works of the time. Among the publications were the first English-language Bible and first dictionary printed in America, the first American edition of the popular Mother Goose's Melody, and a spelling book that sold 300 000 copies, and he was the first major US publisher of children's books. Retiring in affluence in 1802, he wrote a well-regarded History of Printing in America (2 vols, 1810), and in 1812 founded the American Antiquarian Society. |
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