Charles L. Webster and Company
Charles L. Webster and Company was an American subscription publishing firm founded in New York in 1884 by author and journalist
History
Founded in 1884, the firm was named after Clemens' niece’s husband
Other books later published by the firm were not as successful and soon Clemens had to reinvest profits back into the firm to make up for losses. In 1888, as the company financially suffered, Clemens fired Webster, who was at odds with him on how to run the firm successfully.[1] Webster, himself, had been overworked traveling throughout the United States visiting the firm's principal agents.[1][2] As the firm grew deeper in debt, Clemens was forced to close the business having formally declared bankruptcy on April 18, 1894.[1] The firms most productive years, although not financially, were from 1891 to 1893. Notable authors published, including Clemens, were Leo Tolstoy, Henry George, and Walt Whitman.[citation needed]
Selected list of published books
1884
- Samuel Clemens
1885
- Samuel Clemens
- Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant Volumes 1 & 2 by Ulysses S. Grant
1886
- McClellan's Own Story: The War for the Union, the Soldiers Who Fought It, the Civilians Who Directed It, and His Relations to It and to Them by George B. McClellan
1887
- Tenting on the Plains; or, General Custer in Kansas and Texas by Elizabeth Custer
- The Life of Pope Leo the XIII by Father Bernard O'Reilly
- Reminiscences of Winfield Scott Hancock by Almira Russell Hancock
1888
- Personal Memoirs of P.H. Sheridan, General, United States Army Volumes 1 & 2 by Philip Sheridan
1889
- The Life and Letters of Roscoe Conkling, Orator, Statesman, Advocate by Alfred R. Conkling
- A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Samuel Clemens
1890
- Memoirs of Gen. W. T. Sherman by William T. Sherman
1891
- Adventures of a Fair Rebel by Matt Crim
- Tinkletop's Crime by George Robert Sims
- Ivan the Fool; or, The Old Devil and the Three Small Devils, also A Lost Opportunity, and Polikshka by Leo Tolstoy
1892
- The Master of Silence: A Romance by Irving Bacheller
- Moonblight and Six Feet of Romance by Daniel C. Beard
- The German Emperor and His Eastern Neighbors by Poultney Bigelow
- Writings of Christopher Columbus, Descriptive of the Discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus
- Life is Worth Living, and Other Stories by Leo Tolstoy
- The American Claimant by Samuel Clemens
- Merry Tales by Samuel Clemens
- Selected Poems by Walt Whitman
- Autobiographia, or, the Story of a Life by Walt Whitman
1893
- A Catastrophe in Bohemia and Other Stories by Henry S. Brooks
- The Art of Sketching by Gustave B. Fraipont
- Social Problems by Henry George
- Stories from the Rabbis by Abram Samuel Isaacs
- The £1,000,000 Bank-note and Other New Stories by Samuel Clemens
1894
- Tom Sawyer Abroad by Samuel Clemens
- Alfred Lord Tennyson by Arthur Waugh
References
Sources
- "Charles L. Webster and Company". Cornell University Library. Cornell University. 2010. Retrieved June 6, 2014.
- "The Publisher of Grant's Book He Tells How the General Was Induced to Write - Some New Books - Mark Twain's Cyclopedia of Wit and Humor". Twainquotes. 1997. Retrieved June 4, 2014.