Albert Shaw, editor of the American Review of Reviews, was born in Shandon, Butler county, Ohio, July 23, 1857. He is the son of Dr. Griffin and Susan (Fisher) Shaw. Graduating from Iowa college, Grinnell, Iowa, in 1879, he became part owner of the Grinnell Herald, while taking a post-graduate course in constitutional history and economic science. He also studied history and political science at the Johns Hopkins university. All this was preparatory to entering the profession which he had chosen as his life work. Next he became editorial writer on the Minneapolis Tribune in 1882, studied journalism in Europe for a year, and in 1891 began to conduct the well-known publication with which he is now identified. Mr. Shaw is the author of a number of works on municipal government and political science, on which subjects he is accepted as an authority. He is a member of many learned societies and is well known on the lecture platforms of the universities and colleges of this country. Mr. Shaw is an excellent example of the value of thorough preparatory work looking to a given career.
Henry Watterson.
Henry Watterson, who is responsible for the editorial policy of the Louisville Courier-Journal, was born in Washington, D. C., February 16, 1840. He was educated by private tutors, this owing to his being threatened with blindness. During the war he acted as staff officer in the Confederate army. When peace was established he at once engaged in newspaper work, and has ever since been more or less conspicuous in the field of journalism. Elected a member of congress in 1875, he has since, although repeatedly offered office, uniformly declined it. He was delegate-at-large from Kentucky for six Democratic national conventions. Mr. Watterson is not only distinguished as a journalist and author, but he has a well-deserved reputation as an orator. His command of the English language, allied to his general wit and braininess, have made his editorials famous throughout the country. He is the author of works on the Civil war and others. In 1865 he married the daughter of the Hon. Andrew Ewing, of Tennessee.
PUBLISHERS.
Frank Nelson Doubleday.
The founder of the flourishing publishing house of Doubleday, Page & Co., of New York, is Frank Nelson Doubleday, who was born in Brooklyn in 1862, being the son of W. E. Doubleday. He was educated at the Polytechnic institute of the City of Churches, and during his school days gave indications of his future career, for before he had finished his studies he had established quite a flourishing job printing business among his schoolmates and friends. When fifteen years of age he got a position with the Scribners as errand boy, remaining with the firm for many years in a number of capacities. He founded the publication entitled “The Book Buyer,” and when Scribner’s Magazine was started he was made its manager and publisher. The average young man would have been contented with this position, which was honorable, professionally, and lucrative, financially. But young Doubleday was ambitious, and so in 1897 he joined the S. S. McClure Company. After a brief stay with them, he formed the Doubleday & McClure Co., book publishers. The firm flourished and published many works of well-known authors, including Rudyard Kipling’s “Day’s Work.” It was at this time that a close friendship was formed between Mr. Doubleday and the famous author. In 1900 Doubleday, Page & Co. came into existence, associated with the senior partner being W. H. Page, former editor of the Atlantic, and H. W. Lanier, who is a son of the poet, Sydney Lanier, and others. The firm established World’s Work, a magazine that achieved an immediate success. Another venture of the company was “Country Life in America,” which is typographically and artistically very beautiful. This magazine, too, was an emphatic success. He married Neltje de Graff, a descendant of a historic Dutch family. Mrs. Doubleday is the author of a number of works, many of which have to do with natural history subjects, including “Bird Neighbors” and “Nature’s Garden,” both of which are well known to students of nature.
Isaac Kauffman Funk.
Originality has been a powerful factor in the career of the noted clergyman, editor and publisher, the Rev. Dr. Isaac Kauffman Funk. He was born at Clifton, Greene county, Ohio, September 10, 1839. His parents, John and Martha (Kauffman) Funk, were descendants of early Holland-Swiss emigrants to Pennsylvania. Graduating from Whittenberg college, Springfield, Ohio, with the degree of D.D., he from this same institution, in 1896, received the degree of LL.D. From 1861 to 1872 he was engaged in active work in the Lutheran ministry. At the end of that time he resigned his pastorate and traveled extensively in Europe, Egypt and Palestine. Upon returning to America he became associate editor of the Christian Radical. In 1876 he founded and published in New York city the Metropolitan Pulpit, now the Homiletic Review, acting as its editor-in-chief. His former college classmate, Adam W. Wagnalls, a lawyer of Atchison, Kansas, became in 1877 his partner, and the firm name was changed to I. K. Funk & Co., and later, in 1891, to Funk & Wagnalls Co. Their several branch houses in Canada and England, as well as their many published books which have met with public favor, testified to the business successes of the members of the concern. Dr. Funk is the founder of some well-known periodicals, among which The Voice, The Literary Digest and The Missionary Review are the most important. He also published a standard dictionary of the English language, of which he was editor-in-chief. The production of this work was a gigantic undertaking, costing nearly one million dollars.