Fun Facts Friday: John Bartlett

June 14, 2024

John Bartlett (14 June, 1820 – 3 December, 1905) was a writer publisher and editor from Massachusetts. He published and edited Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations since 1855.

Fun Facts Friday: John Bartlett
Books by John Bartlett*

Fun Facts about John Bartlett:

  1. John Bartlett was born in Plymouth, MA. His father, William Bartlett, ancestors came ashore on the Mayflower.
  2. Susan Thacher, his mother, was a descendant of Anthony and Elizabeth Thacher who were the sole survivors of a 1635 shipwreck.
  3. By the time he was three years old, John Bartlett could read fluently. By the time he was nine he read the Bible.
  4. When he was 16 years old John Bartlett moved to Cambridge, MA to work at the University Bookstore which sold books to Harvard students. Thirteen years later he owned the store.
  5. The first edition of Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations was privately printed in 1855. It was 258 pages long and included quotes from 169 people. By the third printing, the quotes from the Bible and Shakespeare were included.
  6. In 182, during the American Civil War, John Bartlett sold his bookstore and became a paymaster in the U.S. Navy serving on the South Atlantic station.
  7. When he came back to Boston, in 1863, and joined one of America’s leading book publishers, Little, Brown and Company. That same year his new employer published his fourth edition. Little, Brown and Company still published Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations in 2022.
  8. John Bartlett also wrote books on fishing and chess.
  9. In 1864 Mr. Bartlett compiled an alphabetical list of the principal words (concordance) used by Shakespeare. This book is still considered to setting the standard.
  10. The concordance took about 16,000 hours to John Bartlett’s time along with Hannah, his wife.

Books by John Bartlett*

Zohar – Man of la Book
*Ama­zon links point to an affil­i­ate account, the money is usually spent on books

Sources:

John Bartlett | Wikipedia

John Bartlett: American editor | Britannica

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Fun Facts Friday: John Bartlett
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Fun Facts Friday: John Bartlett
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John Bartlett (14 June, 1820 – 3 December, 1905) was a writer publisher and editor from Massachusetts. He published and edited Bartlett's Familiar Quotations since 1855.
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Man of la Book - A Bookish Blog
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