Edwin Ginn (February 14, 1838 – January 21, 1914) was an American publisher, peace advocate and philanthropist.

Biography

Ginn was born in

Orland, Maine Orland is a town in Hancock County, Maine, United States. The population was 2,221 at the 2020 census. Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , of which is land and is water. Demographics 201 ...

, on February 14, 1838, into a Universalist farming family who were descendants of early settlers of Maryland, Virginia, and Salem, Massachusetts. He attended Westbrook Seminary, a Universalist preparatory school. Forgoing the ministry, he enrolled instead at

Tufts University Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. ...

in 1858. He graduated from Tufts with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1862, receiving his Masters of Arts at the same time. After graduation, Ginn had a successful career selling schoolbooks. In 1868, he founded

Ginn & Company Pearson Education is a British-owned education publishing and assessment service to schools and corporations, as well for students directly. Pearson owns educational media brands including Addison–Wesley, Peachpit, Prentice Hall, eCollege, ...

and Athenæum Press, which became a leading

textbook A textbook is a book containing a comprehensive compilation of content in a branch of study with the intention of explaining it. Textbooks are produced to meet the needs of educators, usually at educational institutions. Schoolbooks are textbook ...

American publisher. The company was later known as Ginn and

Heath A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a cooler a ...

. Ginn married twice, fathering six children. In his late 50s, Ginn turned his focus to philanthropy: the American

peace movement A peace movement is a social movement which seeks to achieve ideals, such as the ending of a particular war (or wars) or minimizing inter-human violence in a particular place or situation. They are often linked to the goal of achieving world peac ...

was his primary concern. Ginn died on January 21, 1914, at his home in

Winchester, Massachusetts Winchester is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, located 8.2 miles (13.2 km) north of downtown Boston as part of the Greater Boston metropolitan area. It is also one of the wealthiest municipalities in Massachusetts. The population ...

, after suffering from a paralytic

stroke A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop funct ...

and

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severit ...

a month earlier. A library is named after him at Tufts's

Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy is the graduate school of international affairs of Tufts University, in Medford, Massachusetts. The School is one of America's oldest graduate schools of international relations and is well-ranked in its ...

Peace movement

Influenced by

Edward Everett Hale Edward Everett Hale (April 3, 1822 – June 10, 1909) was an American author, historian, and Unitarian minister, best known for his writings such as " The Man Without a Country", published in '' Atlantic Monthly'', in support of the Union ...

, a pastor of Boston's South

Congregational Church Congregational churches (also Congregationalist churches or Congregationalism) are Protestant churches in the Calvinist tradition practising congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs i ...

, Ginn dedicated himself to the cause and the possibility of peace. On July 12, 1910, through a $1 million endowment, he founded the International School of Peace in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- most p ...

. whose purpose was "Educating the people of all nations to a full knowledge of the waste and destructiveness of war and of preparation for war, its evil effects on present social conditions and on the wellbeing of future generations, and to promote international justice and the brotherhood of man, and generally by every practical means to promote peace and goodwill among all mankind. The school later became the

World Peace Foundation The World Peace Foundation or WPF, created in 1910, is a philanthropic foundation for research into peace processes affiliated with The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. Alex de Waal is the director , having become directo ...

. In 2007, Robert I. Rotberg published ''A Leadership for Peace: How Edwin Ginn Tried to Change the World'' ().

References

External links

The Edwin Ginn Library
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ginn, Edwin American publishers (people) American pacifists American Universalists 1838 births People from Orland, Maine 1914 deaths Deaths from pneumonia in Massachusetts Westbrook College alumni Tufts University alumni 19th-century American businesspeople