xt7qjq0stw34_3230 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7qjq0stw34/data/mets.xml https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7qjq0stw34/data/1997ms474.dao.xml unknown archival material 1997ms474 English University of Kentucky The physical rights to the materials in this collection are held by the University of Kentucky Special Collections Research Center.  Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. W. Hugh Peal manuscript collection Obituary notices for George Haven Putnam text 43.94 Cubic Feet 86 boxes, 4 oversize boxes, 22 items Poor-Good Peal accession no. 11453. Obituary notices for George Haven Putnam 2017 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7qjq0stw34/data/1997ms474/Box_31/Folder_95/Multipage11184.pdf 1930 March 1 1930 1930 March 1 
  Scope and Contents
  
Peal accession no. 13150.
 section false xt7qjq0stw34_3230 xt7qjq0stw34 March I, 1930

then follows an article on ”Firsts, Issues
and Points” by George H. Sargent, long
known for his contribution to the Boston
Transcript; there are three articles on
authors’ first adventures in getting into
print which have both literary and collect-
ing interest, one by H. L. lVIencken, one
by Sherwood Anderson, one by William
lVIcFee; E. W. Kemble discusses the il-
lustrating of “Huckleberry Finn”; George
S. Hellman describes the events connected
with the publishing of Irving’s “Wash-
ington,” and William A. Kittredge of
Chicago writes of “The Bookplates of
Bruce Rogers.”

The make-up of the volume is a quarto,
bound in boards with a cover design by
Edward Wilson. Each signature of eight
or of sixteen pages is the product of a
different press which has made its own
selection of type and paper. Miss Granniss’
article on “Colophons,” for instance, has
been printed by the Spiral Press; and other
contributing printers are Currier & Har-
ford, the Harbor Press, the Marchibanks
Press of New York, the Lakeside Press of
Chicago, Canfield 86 Tack of Rochester
and The Pynson Printers.

Booksellers will find this quarterly of
great practical value as it will supply in—
sight into collecting tendencies, detailed
information of collecting points and sug—
gestions as to the new and important
tendencies in typography. The binding in
permanent form makes it easy to keep for
reference, and it will be kept, too, because
of the first—edition material which it con-
tains.

The entire American world of book-
lovers, book collectors and book makers
will welcome enterprise and congratulate
its sponsors.

Chain Store Statistics

0 much emphasis has been laid in the
past few years on the growth of the
chain store method that it is unex-

pected to find that statistics indicate that
the rate of increase shows a decided slow—
ing down. The grocery group of stores
opened only 1.6% more stores, while the
candy group dropped 2.9%. According to
one interpreter, the movement Will no
doubt continue but probably at a decreased
pace.

1083

75% of All Bankruptcies Are
Needless

HAT 75% of all business failures
are unnecessary and the result of
controllable exigencies, is the finding
of the first investigation into the causes of
business ills in the United States. The
investigation was conducted by officials of
the Department of Commerce and the Yale
Institute of Human Relations who selected
New Jersey as a typical ”case State” in
which to study the causes of bankruptcy.
The results of the study bear out the
opinion of the investigators that in the past
too much attention has been given to the
salvaging of business wreckage with little
or no thought for and intelligent consider-
ation of the factors which result in business
failure. The factors that contribute to
failure fall into three groups: first, under
personal causes were considered education,
living expenses, previous experience, spec-
ulation and medical expenses; second, the
business methods employed which include
trade associations, turnover, inventory and
books, credit losses, previous failures and
fire and burglary insurance; and third, the
extent to which credit extension was a
factor that led to the collapse.

The report shows that the application of
the most simple business standards would
have prevented the failure in 75% percent
of the cases studied. The bankruptcies that
resulted from misfortune rather than fault
were so few that they are separately
enumerated. These unpreventable causes
were illness, accident, robbery, fire, change
in the neighborhood and labor trouble.

In only six of the forty-three failures
which resulted from the fault in business
methods were proper books and inventories
kept.

The committee reports, “The simple
commercial and personal standards and
violations we have been discussing can in
our opinion be brought home to the mer-
cantile community by two methods—educa-
tion and isolation, or to put the latter
medically, quarantine. We believe that an
even wider research into the facts under-
lying individual insolvencies and the wide-
spread dissemination of those'facts will;
ultimately bring about a more general:
avoidance of the pitfalls exposed.”

 

 The Publishers’ I/Veekly

 

George Haven Putnam 1844-1930

MARVELOUS life has come to

its earthly end. In the fields of

publishing and of civic activities, no
man has led, for many years, a more ac—
tive, earnest, useful, effective, public-
spirited and high-purposed life than George
Haven Putnam.

In the field of publishing his personal
activities were extraordinary throughout
his life. His father, George Palmer Put-
nam, set a high standard for his sons, to
which that father had adhered through
ups and downs in business success. The
eldest son emulated his father in patriot-
ism as well as in publishing. Enlisting
in the Civil War, he cast a soldier’s vote
for Abraham Lincoln before he was of
age, and rose to the rank Of Major, a
title by which it pleased him to be called
to the very end of his life. As Junior

Member of the firm in his father’s day,
and for fifty-eight years its head, he gave

personal impetus to the business, and many
of the series of international character
which bore the Putnam imprint came di-
rectly from his personal suggestion. Born
in England during his father’s stay as a
representative of American publishing
there, he crossed the Atlantic more than
sixty times, braving the dangers of sub-
marine attack during the war as he braved
political opponents in peace. Thus he
built up not only the London house, which
bears the firm name, but developed a wide
acquaintance among English authors and
statesmen. Oxford University conferred
on him its Doctor of Literature degree.
For over ninety years at home and in
international relations, the name of the
Putnam firm has been held in high honor
for its intimate relations with authors and
its fair and liberal treatment of their in-
terests. As an author himself, he found
time to write voluminously, his works
covering the early history of authorship
and publishing, the story of his own career,
full of interesting personal reminiscences,
and many lesser writings in the political
and economic fields. Especially he was an

ardent leader in the cause of international
copyright, succeeding in this respect to
his father’s devotion to the cause, and to
him was chiefly due the organization of
the American Publishers’ Copyright Lea—
gue, of which he was secretary, imme-
diately after the formation of the Ameri-
can (Authors’) Copyright League, of
which he was a member,——and in suc—
cession to this he became Chairman of the
Bureau of Copyright of the National As-
sociation of Book Publishers, which con-
tinued the work. He never flinched from
standing for the rights of authors to the
fullest extent, at the same time upholding
vigorously the rights of publishers, as their
representative, and the great body of Eng—
lish and American authors may well feel
that in his passing they have 10st one of
their foremost champions.

In civic relations his activities have been
multifarious, but always effective. It was
at his instance that Theodore Roosevelt
made his entry into politics, by the sug-
gestion that the young Harvard graduate
would be a good candidate for the As-
sembly, and through him the ex-President
dictated from his hospital bed his last
message to the American people. He was
one of the first to respond in 1879 to
the call for independent Republican ac-
tion, and in the Mugwamp movement
which ensued, he supported Grover Cleve-
land and turned from the party of his
youth to become an Independent of Demo—
cratic Proclivities. Civil Service reform
early had his support. He supported sound
money as against Bryan and stood always
for tariff reform, becoming like Roosevelt
in his free days a member of the Cob—
den Club and later up to the time of his
death the acting President of the Free
Trade League. 7

Though born on British soil he was a
one hundred percent-American in the true
sense of that abused phrase, for his na-
tionalism was as ardent as his internation-
alism was broad, and to him these two
causes were the same. In the organiza-

 

 March I, 1930

tion of the English Speaking Union he
took the greatest delight in becoming one
of its most active member representatives
on the American side of the Atlantic. But
to name all his interests in such a field is
to make a catalog of a large proportion
of the causes which command the support
of loyal citizens of America who are also
“citizens of the world.”

In his personal relations he was equally
remarkable. His friendship embraced two
generations of authors and many of the
leading statesmen, both of his own and
of the Mother Country. Many degrees
came to him from American colleges as
well as from Oxford University which
honored him. He was a fluent and agree-
able speaker on many topics and his ad—

dresses on Lincoln were peculiarly dis-
cerning and interesting. As a correspondent
he was a marvel for he wrote many letters
on all subjects at considerable length and
usually answered letters on the day of
their receipt, a feat the more extraordinary
because of the large and varied mail which
came to his desk daily. Everyone who
knew him honored him. To one who has
enjoyed sixty years of association with
him, a larger sense of greatness in this
quiet, unobtrusive, unselfish man, has
grown, with friendship, through the years.
It will be long before American publish-
ing has another man as its dean who has
given his life to such service as has George

Haven Putnam.
R. R.‘B.

 

 

 1086

The Publishers" I/Vee/ely

Dean of American Publishers

jlrfajor George Haven Patna/1L Carve a Long Life 2‘0 Public Causes
and His Profession’x A d-vaucemeut

N February 27th, at the age of

eighty-five, George Haven Putnam,

dean of American publishing, died
at his home at I Sutton Place South, New
York. Although hdajor Putnam had been
ill during the early winter, his vigorous
constitution had apparently brought him
back to health, and only a month ago he
presided with his usual readiness and wit
at the annual luncheon of the National
Association of Book Publishers. On Wash—
ington’s birthday he was obliged to cancel
a promised address, and during the past
week his strength failed rapidly. On his
next birthday, April 2nd, he would have
been eighty-six.

l\lajor Putnam is survived by his wife,
Emily James Putnam, and their son,
Palmer Cosslett Putnam, who, with his
wife, is now abroad. His daughters are
Bertha H. Putnam, Ethel F. Putnam,
Klrs. Joseph Lindon Smith and l\’Irs.
Robert Falconer, all of whom were pres—
ent at his bedside. He is also survived
by his brothers, lrving Putnam, vice-
president and director of G. P. Putnam’s
Sons, Herbert Putnam, Librarian of Con—
gress, and Kingman N. Putnam, retired.
His surviving sisters are Edith G. Put—
nam, Ruth Putnam and l\/lrs. R. W. S.
Pinhey, now residing in Geneva, Switzer-
land.

The Putnam line follows back to dis-
tinguished ancestry, as far back as the
Puttenhams of Buckinghamshire, England,
of centuries ago. John and Priscilla Put—
nam migrated from Aston Abbots, Buck—
inghamshire, in 1640, and found a New
VVorld home in Salem, Adam, with which
the name of Putnam is still closely asso—
ciated. Their grandson, Joseph Putnam,
was noted for his opposition to the witch-
craft craze; he was related by his mar—
riage with Elizabeth Porter to the
Hathorne, afterward Hawthorne family.
Their son, l\'Tajor General Israel Put—
nam, whose commission was given him

by Washington at Cambridge, July 4.,

1775, was born in that part of Salem
now the town of Danvers, and on Sep—
tember I4, 1923, a tablet was unveiled,
with an address by h’lajor Putnam.

Boyhood and Youth

George Haven Putnam, the first—born
son of George Palmer and Victorine Haven
Putnam, was the second of a notable family
of eleven children. The eldest was lVIary
Putnam, who, with an English associate,
bliss Elizabeth Garrett Anderson (Dr.
Garrett Anderson), forced open to women
the Ecole de h’létlecine, Paris. Among
the other children were John Bishop Put—
nam and Irving Putnam, also of the pub—
lishing firm; Ruth Putnam, biographer and
historian of the Netherlands and Luxem—
burg; and Herbert Putnam, who com—
pleted, last of April, his thirty years of dis-
tinguished service as Librarian of Congress.
The father was a distinguished publisher in
New York and a foremost advocate of in—
ternational copyright. He was for some
years a resident in London, where he pub—
lished his “American Facts” and there
the elder children were born.

Foreign Travel and Study

When the family returned to New
York, George Haven Putnam, as a school—
boy, increased in wisdom, if not in stature,
and proved the equal of boys two or three
years older than himself with whom he
associated and who knew him affectionately
as “little Put.”

The Putnam home in New York was
the center of a literary Circle of which
Washington Irving was the chief ornament,
and among l\lr. Putnam’s boyish mem—
ories, those of the creator of Diedrich
Knickerbocker (for whom the Putnam firm
has always been publisher), stand out most
clearly.

George Haven Putnam, after completing
his boyhood education at Columbia Gram—
mar School, was sent abroad for study at
the Sorbonnc and at the University of Get-

 

 March I, 1930

tingen where his course, begun in 1861 was
interrupted by his return in 1862, to enlist
for the Civil War. This experience gave
him a working knowledge of French and a
command of the German language, both of
which have stood him in good stead as a
publisher with international relations. He
has been worthily honored by degrees of
A.M. from Bowdoin, 1894, Litt.D. from
the Western University of Pennsylvania
in 1899, and from Columbia University
in 1912, when he was presented for the
honor with the designation of “Brave
soldier and good citizen; author as well as
publisher; carrying on with zeal and high
purpose the traditions of a publishing house
of which New York and the nation are
deservedly proud; alert in the definition
and defense of literary property.” In 1926
he was given the degree of Doctor of Lit—
erature by Oxford University.

His return to New York in 1862 was in—
duced by an urgent determination to aid
the Union cause, and though his father was
a man of influence as a distinguished pa-
triot, the modesty and patriotism of the
young man caused him to enlist as a pri—
vate rather than to seek through that influ-
ence an officer’s commission. But for that,
as a friend has said, he might have been a
Major-General instead of a l\"Iajor, though
his wellaearned promotion to the last-named
dignity proved so much of an honor that he
was always distinctively known as h'Iajor
Putnam, a title of which he was pleasantly
proud. His service was interrupted and
possibly his promotion checked by his
capture, October 19, 1864. in the Battle of
Cedar Creek, whence he was sent to Libby
Prison and later to Danville Prison. He
was released from prison March I, 1865,
just before Lee’s surrender.

Publishing and PolitiCS

On his return home, he became as—
sociated with his father as a deputy collec-
tor of internal revenue in the New York
district and a year later in the publishing
business as G. P. Putnam & Son at 661
Broadway, and began the business career
which continued nearly sixty-five years.
The firm removed in 1870 to Fourth Ave—
nue in the Y. M. C. A. building, corner of
Twenty—third Street, and in 1872 after the
death of the father on December 20, the
firm name, other brothers, John Bishop
Putnam and Irving Putnam being as—

1087

sociated, was changed to G. P. Putnam’s
Sons, which it has since held, though in-
corporated as a company in 1892. John
Bishop Putnam who died in October, 1915,
developed the firm’s production plant, the
Knickerbocker Press at New Rochelle,
while Irving Putnam devoted himself to
the firm’s retail business in new and rare

books.

fllajor Putnam delivering a Memorial Day
address in Westminster Square, London

In this firm Walter Howe, and later
Theodore Roosevelt, were silent partners,
an association which helped to give the
future president his start in politics. In
fact, it was at the suggestion of George
Haven Putnam that this young partner
was recommended in 1882 for Republican
candidate for the New York Assembly,
as being a young man of ability, of politi-
cal ambition and of independent means.
His senior has often pictured the return
of the youthful publisher-politican to his
business desk of a Saturday with more
than enough schemes in his head to bank-
rupt any publisher within a year.

George Haven Putnam married in 1869
Rebecca K. Shepard, who shared with
Fanny Garrison, now Mrs. Henry Villard,
the brave honor of taking up the collec-
tion at the meetings during William

 

 1088

Lloyd Garrison’s slavery crusade. They
had a notable family of five daughters.
Mrs. Putnam died in 1895 after twenty—
five years of happy and useful association,
during which, before the days of private
secretaries, she often served as amanuensis
for her husband, since a wound received
in the \Var disabled him from Overmuch
autographic work. In 1899 he married
Emily James Smith, who had been Dean
of Barnard College, and their son, now
living in Colorado bears the name of
Palmer Crosslet Putnam,

Author and Editor

As a publisher, George Haven Putnam
has notably exemplified the fact that many
books are due to the publisher’s rather
than the author’s invention, “The Story
of the NationsH and kindred series, the
American continuation of “The Cambridge.
History of Literature,” ”The Outline of
l..itei'atu1‘e," complementing “The Outline
of Science.H are among the international
enterprises which have come from his sug—
gestion.

Despite the drafts upon his energy by
immediate business and by his many
patriotic services, he found the time to
write authoritatively on books and author—
ship and to edit historical papers,

Leader in Copyright Progress

.‘VIajor Putnam had been a prominent
member of the Loyal Legion of Civil War
Veterans, and he was among the active
American organizers of the English-Speak—
ing Union, as well as of the American
Rights League. He was an honorary mem-
ber of the Cobden Club in London and
the President of the Free Trade League
in America. In behalf of international
copyright, he followed in the steps of
his honored father and was the Execu—
tive Secretary of the American Publish-
ers’ Copyright League, which was organ—
ized largely by him, and later, of the Copy—
right Bureau of the National Association
of Book Publishers, and his services for
international copyright won for him from
France the Red Ribbon of the Legion of
Honor.

Orator and Publicist

The publishing house has a branch in
London founded in 1841, and it had been

The Publishers) PVee/ely

b'Iajor Putnam’s custom to spend a month
or more each year at his London desk, and
renew his acquaintance with English au~
thors and political leaders. These visits he
continued, with the exception of one year,
even during the war when he braved the
U—boat danger. In England, as well as
in America, he had many and varied circles
of friends, such as those who are to be
found in the Century Club in New York
and at the Reform Club in London. As
a publicist, he was even more honored in
England than in his home country. On
July 4, 1918, when the English signalized
their recognition of the fact that the Amer—
ican Revolution saved their liberties as well
as ours, by celebrating our Independence
Day in Westminster Hall, IVIajor Put—
nam, in the absence of our Ambassador,
was selected to make the leading Ameri—
can speech before an august assembly.
Both in America and England as a
ready, clear and interesting speaker, George
Haven Putnam was in demand for ad—
dresses on various occasions and on many
subjects; and in his eightieth year such
was his vigor that he made five addresses
within two days on the occasion of

Lincoln’s birthday, including one by radio.

The Indefatigable Worker

As a worker, he was a model of prompti-
tude and effectiveness. He was early at his
desk, read his large and varied mail be-
fore most people are fairly at work, dic—
tated his letters to several assistants spe—
cially informed as to specific subjects or
organizations with which he has to do, and
then was ready for a busy day in consulta—
tion with his associates, with authors and
with the many kinds of men and women
who came to him for counsel or cooper—w
tion. Usually he lunched at his favorite
Century Club, where he was one of the
veterans most appreciated. He was also a
member of the City Club and of numerous
other organizations of the kind. At four,
when he had no speaking engagement, he
was accustomed to leave his office for a
walk to his residence on Sutton Place,
and after the hour’s siesta which helped
to keep him vigorous, he received, read and
signed the letters which he had dictated
and were not ready before his departure
from his office.