Edward William Bok (1863–1930)

This is an autobiography and history of publishing in America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Edward Bok was the driving force behind turning marginal publications such as the Ladies Home Journal and the Saturday Evening Post into behemoths. Bok immigrated from Holland as a child following his father's financial ruin. An autodidact, he quit school as a teenager following the death of his father to support his mother. He was able to meet and receive guidance from the leading literary and political lights of the day by merely asking. Today this would be considered stalking at the worst and he would receive outright rejection at the best, if he didn't manage to get arrested. His mentors included Pres. Hayes, Jefferson Davis, Emerson, Alcott, Jay Gould and many more. His persistence in selling advertising led him to a career in publishing and from there he was off. The only odd bit is his memoir is written entirely in third person. Worth a look for those interested in the publishing industry, advertising, or the social norms of an age past.… (altro)

2793 The Americanization of Edward Bok: The Autobiography of a Dutch Boy Fifty Years After (read 15 Oct 1995) (Pulitzer Biography prize for 1921) Bok was born 9 Oct 1863 at Helder, Netherlands, arrived in the U.S. on Sep 20, 1870, was editor of the Ladies Home Journal from 1889 to 1919, and (the Encyclopedia Americana tells me) died near Lake Welles, Fla., on Jan 9, 1930. This book is somewhat sententious and ego-centered, and reading it 75 years after it was written it is clear that it was a different world then. But he has some truthful things to say, although one finds it hard to believe he would be against woman suffrage--and editor of a woman's magazine. I'd be interested to browse thru the Ladies Home Journal in the years he ran it.… (altro)