Jan Otto (8 November 1841,

Přibyslav Přibyslav () is a town in Havlíčkův Brod District in the Vysočina Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 4,100 people. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protected as an urban monument zone. Administrative division Př ...

– 29 May 1916,

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

) was a

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...

publisher and bookseller. He is best known for '' Otto's encyclopedia'', the largest encyclopedia published in

Life and work

He was the son of a country doctor. In 1862 he began working as a printer. In 1871, he took over the

printing press A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a printing, print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in whi ...

from his father-in-law Jaroslav Pospíšil. In 1874 he opened a bookstore on Wenceslaus Square in

, but after 1910, he concentrated on publishing. After his death his son and son-in-law took over the company but after lasting troubles, went bankrupt in 1934. In the 1880s he started to work on publishing a complete encyclopedia in

. Despite many difficulties, he began publication 1888. It was an immediate commercial success, and publishing continued twenty years. In addition to the encyclopedia, he published other successful volumes. ''Ottova světová knihovna'' (''Otto's world library'') and ''Světová četba'' (''World's reading''), containing some 2,000 passages translated into Czech. ''Laciná knihovna národní'' was a series of affordable but quality books from Czech authors. He also published collections of several authors, Brehm's ''

Life of Animals ''Ḥayāt al-ḥayawān al-kubrā (The Life of Animals)'' is a comprehensive zoological encyclopedia written by al-Damiri. The book details the characteristics and stories of various animals, weaving together scientific facts, folklore, and mora ...

'', and literary newspapers such as ''

Lumír ''Lumír'' is a weekly literary magazine that was established in 1851 by Ferdinand Břetislav Mikovec. It was the focal point of the neo-romantic nationalist poet Jaroslav Vrchlický and his Ossianic followers.Arne Novák & William Edward Harkin ...

'', ''

Zlatá Praha ''Zlatá Praha'' (''Golden Prague'') was a Czech illustrated literary magazine. Founded by poet Vítězslav Hálek, it was published separately from 1864 to 1865 before it was restarted again in 1884 by publisher Jan Otto, with Ferdinand Schulz, ...

'' and ''

Světozor __NOTOC__ ''Světozor'' ("Seeing the World") was a Czech language, Czech-language illustrated magazine published in 19th and 20th century. History and profile ''Světozor'' was created by Pavel Josef Šafařík in 1834. Šafařík was inspired b ...

''. He was active in social and political life of

society. In 1912, he was appointed a member of the Austrian

House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...

References

Other sources

Short biography (in Czech)

History of Otto's encyclopedia (in Czech)
(PDF)

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Otto, Jan 1841 births 1916 deaths People from Přibyslav 19th-century Czech businesspeople Businesspeople from Austria-Hungary 19th-century publishers (people) Czech publishers (people) Burials at Vyšehrad Cemetery