Walter Montgomery Jackson (1863–1923) was the founder of encyclopedia publisher Grolier, Inc., and he was the partner of

Horace Everett Hooper Horace Everett Hooper (December 8, 1859 – June 13, 1922) was the publisher of ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' from 1897 until his death. Early life Born in Worcester, Massachusetts, he quit school at the age of 16, and after gaining experience ...

in publishing the 10th edition of the ''

Encyclopædia Britannica The is a general knowledge, general-knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It has been published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. since 1768, although the company has changed ownership seven times. The 2010 version of the 15th edition, ...

'' and in developing its 11th edition. He split with Hooper in 1908–1909 in a nasty legal fight after failing to wrest control of the ''Britannica'' from Hooper, but obtaining the right to publish the '' Book of Knowledge'', a 1912 U.S. adaptation of '' The Children's Encyclopædia''.

Early life and career

Jackson was born in Newton Lower Falls,

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

, and he began to work cleaning the bookshop and offices of Estes and Lauriat in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, ten miles from his birthplace. By the age of 22, he was a partner in the firm, overseeing the manufacturing and publishing. He helped expand the distribution of the firm, but quickly became involved in other publishing ventures as part-owner or director. Jackson founded the Grolier Society, which specialized in making extra-fine editions of classics and rare literature. The Society was named after the

Grolier Club The Grolier Club is a private club and society of bibliophiles in New York City. Founded in January 1884, it is the oldest existing bibliophilic club in North America. The club is named after Jean Grolier de Servières, Viscount d'Aguisy, T ...

, which had been founded in 1884 to advance the arts involved in making books and which was named after a well-known French

bibliophile A bookworm or bibliophile is an individual who loves and frequently reads or collects books. Bibliophilia or bibliophilism is the love of books. Bibliophiles may have large, specialized book collections. They may highly value old editions, aut ...

Jean Grolier de Servières Jean Grolier de Servières, viscount d'Aguisy ( – 22 October 1565) was Treasurer-General of France and a famous bibliophile. As a book collector, Grolier is known in particular for his patronage of the Aldine Press, and his love of richly d ...

. After the split with Hooper he acquired the rights to publish the British '' The Children's Encyclopaedia'' under the name '' Book of Knowledge''. ''

The Children's Encyclopedia ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...

'' was a 10-volume compilation of a popular children's journal of the same name founded and edited by

Arthur Mee Arthur Henry Mee (21 July 187527 May 1943) was an English writer, journalist and educator. He is best known for ''The Harmsworth Self-Educator'', ''The Children's Encyclopædia'', ''The Children's Newspaper'', and ''The King's England''. Ea ...

and published by

Alfred Harmsworth Alfred Charles William Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe (15 July 1865 – 14 August 1922), was a British newspaper and publishing magnate. As owner of the ''Daily Mail'' and the ''Daily Mirror'', he was an early developer of popular journal ...

, Lord Northcliffe. Being an assembly of the journal issues, the encyclopedia was not organized alphabetically, but rather topically; navigation was assisted by an index in the final volume. Jackson secured the American reprint rights in 1910 after resolving some copyright issues with Lord Northcliffe, Grolier, Inc. subsequently became a large publisher of general encyclopaedias, including

Academic American Encyclopedia ''Academic American Encyclopedia'' is a 21-volume general English language, English-language encyclopedia published in 1980. It was first produced by Arête Publishing, the American subsidiary of the Dutch publishing company Nielsen Company, VNU''K ...

, and the software

Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia Grolier is one of the largest American publishers of general encyclopedias, including ''The Book of Knowledge'' (1910), ''The New Book of Knowledge'' (1966), ''The New Book of Popular Science'' (1972), ''Encyclopedia Americana'' (1945), ''Academ ...

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jackson, Walter Montgomery 1863 births 1923 deaths American publishers (people)