Frederick Abbott Stokes (November 4, 1857 – November 15, 1939) was an American publisher, founder and long-time head of the eponymous Frederick A. Stokes Company.

Biography

Stokes graduated from Yale Law School in 1879. He worked at Dodd, Mead and Company for a year and in 1881 established White & Stokes, a partnership that became the Frederick A. Stokes Company in 1890. The Stokes businesses published more than 3,000 books in his 58 years, 1881 to 1939.

Stokes published established writers such as Frances Hodgson Burnett, Frank Buck, and Stephen Crane. He also published beginning writers such as James Branch Cabell, Maria Montessori, and Percival Wren. Best sellers included: The Story of Ferdinand, On Jungle Trails, Doctor Dolittle, When Worlds Collide, Guys and Dolls, and The Story of Little Black Sambo. Stokes was also known for publishing high quality art and children's books, such as "The Glue Series", a popular 17-volume series beginning with The House That Glue Built in 1905.Jackson, C. D. (2010). "From the Collection: With Paper and Glue: Building the Commercial Success of an Arts and Crafts Toy". Winterthur Portfolio 44 (4): 351–386. .

Stokes was an opponent of the new Book Clubs of the 1920s, and of modern advertising methods such as billboards and radio ads.

Stokes died in 1939, at age 82, in his home at 344 West 72nd Street, Manhattan. Many prominent people from the book industry attended his funeral service at the Church of the Incarnation (Episcopal). He was buried at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.

Stokes left the publishing company to his sons Horace Winston and Frederick Brett, who were then the company treasurer and secretary. J. B. Lippincott acquired it in 1943.

Authors Authors' names are followed by dates of their known association with Frederick A. Stokes.

Writers

Helen Bannerman, 1900 Louis Bromfield, 1926 Frank Buck, 1936 Frances Hodgson Burnett, 1901 James Branch Cabell Stephen Crane, 1899 Edward S. Curtis, 1912 Glenn Curtiss, 1912 Ferrin Fraser, 1936 Susan Glaspell, 1909–1931 Owen Johnson. 1912–1915 Munro Leaf, 1934–1942 Lois Lenski, 1929–1943 J. Thomas Looney, 1870 – 1944 Sinclair Lewis, 1910–1912 Hugh Lofting, 1920–1936 Mary MacLane, 1917 Elizabeth Cooper, 1914-1927

Maria Montessori, 1912–1917 L. M. Montgomery, 1917–1939 Richard F. Outcault, 1904–1914 Robert E. Peary, 1898–1912 John J. Pershing, 1931 Olive Higgins Prouty, 1919 Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić, 1922 Ellery Queen, 1929–1940 Edward V. Rickenbacker, 1919 W. Heath Robinson, 1925 Damon Runyon, 1931–1938 Walter C. Sweeney, Sr., 1924 William M. Timlin, 1923 Clara Andrews Williams, 1905–1926 Percival Wren, 1925–1933 Lee Wulff, 1939 Philip Wylie, 1933–1934 Isabel Briggs Myers, 1930-1934

Illustrators Joseph M. Gleeson, Scribner's Magazine. Vol. XIV, July–December 1893. Charles Scribner's Sons. p. 18. Maria Louise Kirk, 1904–1927 Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (New York: Frederick A. Stokes Co., 1904); Lucy Maud Montgomery, Emily's Quest (New York: Frederick A. Stokes Co., 1927) George Alfred Williams, 1905–1926

Book series

See also

Pocket Magazine, published by Stokes

References

Further reading Frederick A. Stokes Company, The House of Stokes, 1881–1926: A Record, New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1926.

External links

Frederick A. Stokes Company at LC Authorities, 91 records