Moses Dresser Phillips (May 15, 1813 - August 20, 1859) was an American publisher of books and magazines best known for creating ''

The Atlantic Monthly ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher based in Washington, D.C. It features articles on politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 ...

''.

Biography

Phillips was born in

Charlton, Massachusetts Charlton is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 13,315 at the 2020 census. History Charlton was first settled in 1735. It was established as a District separated from Oxford on January 10, 1755, and b ...

. At age 18 he moved to

Worcester, Massachusetts Worcester ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Massachusetts, second-most populous city in the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the list of United States cities by population, 113th most populous city in the United States. Named after Worcester ...

, where he served as a bookstore clerk in the shop of Clarendon Harris. In 1835 he established his own bookstore in partnership with William Lincoln, and around 1843, in partnership with Charles Sampson, he founded the Boston publishing house of Phillips & Sampson (later Phillips, Sampson & Company). Phillips told an anecdote, recounted 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 ...

, of their first orders from San Francisco during the Gold Rush year of 1849: "So many hundred packs of 'Highland' cards, so many of the 'True Thomas' cards, and so on till the box was nearly full, and then 'one dozen Bibles. This was seed corn, as he said. By 1852 or 1853, the orders were for "Four hundred Byron's Poems, four hundred Scott's Poems, one hundred Cowper's Poems" and so on in large shipments. In the autumn of 1857, Phillips and Sampson determined to create and publish ''

''. Their plan was launched in a dinner-party, as described in a letter by Phillips: At that dinner, he announced his idea for a magazine:Hale, ''op. cit.'' The first issue of ''The Atlantic'' was published in November 1857, and quickly gained fame as one of the finest magazines in the English-speaking world. Phillips died at age 46 in his house in

Brookline, Massachusetts Brookline () is an affluent town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States, and part of the Greater Boston, Boston metropolitan area. An exclave of Norfolk County, Brookline borders six of Boston's neighborhoods: Brighton, Boston, Brighton ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Phillips, Moses Dresser American publishers (people) 1813 births 1859 deaths 19th-century American businesspeople Phillips family (New England)