Elbert Hubbard

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Elbert Hubbard

Elbert Green Hubbard (born June 19, 1856 in Bloomington , McLean County , Illinois , † May 7, 1915 in the Atlantic Ocean off the Irish coast) was an American writer , essayist , philosopher and publisher . He was the founder of the Roycroft Movement , an American branch of the Arts and Crafts Movement coming from England .

Life

Writer, publisher

Hubbard was born in the small town of Bloomington but grew up in the village of Hudson, Illinois. As a young man, he went to Buffalo , New York , where he worked as a senior executive at his brother-in-law's Larkin Soap Company. In 1891 he gave up this position to concentrate on his writing work. By 1894 he wrote four novels. At the same time he was enrolled at Harvard University in Cambridge , Massachusetts , which he left after one semester. Hubbard was a graduate of Tufts University in Medford , Massachusetts.

Hubbard moved from Buffalo to the small town of East Aurora, NY , where he ran an art print shop from 1895, worked as an editor and journalist and founded the Roycroft Movement .

He was also a freelance journalist, critic and publisher. 1895 Hubbard founded the monthly magazine The Philistine (The philistines ) for which he worked as an editor and writer. In the same year, Little Journeys followed, and in 1908 The Fra (The Friar) was added. All three magazines appeared until Hubbard's death in 1915.

He is best known for his biographical essays . In the March issue of the Philistine 1899 Hubbard's essay appeared message to Garcia (A Message To Garcia). In it he reports on the soldier Rowan, who was ordered in the Spanish-American War of 1898 to deliver a letter to the Cuban General García. Hubbard describes how Rowan, without hesitation, objections or inquiries, takes the letter, finds García, suspected in the Cuban mountains, and delivers the letter. Hubbard praised Rowan's sense of duty, willpower, and loyalty. In comparison, he criticizes the work ethic of his employees, who leave such virtues to be desired.

Message to Garcia (English. A Message to García ) met with approval from employers and military commanders around the world, who distributed the text en masse among their employees and subordinates. In this way, printed as a booklet, the work reached a total circulation of 40 million copies.

Hubbard was also an avid horse breeder and as such spoke at the annual Society for the Apprehension of Horse Thieves in Dedham.

When the American congressman and co-owner of the New York department store Macy’s , Isidor Straus , and his wife were killed in the sinking of the RMS Titanic , Hubbard expressed his appreciation for the couple. He admired the fact that the married couple, who had lived together all their lives, had not diverged even in death: “Mr. and Mrs. Straus, I envy the legacy of love and loyalty that you have left with your children and grandchildren to have. The quiet courage you had in your long lives and successful careers was also yours in death. They knew how to do the big things - how to live, how to love, and how to die. ”Little did Hubbard know that the same fate awaited him.

Regarding death in general, he said: “There are two adequate ways to die: either in old age or by accident. Illness or suicide are unacceptable. "

Roycroft

Inspired by the ideas of the English painter and writer William Morris , Hubbard founded the Roycroft Society in East Aurora in 1895 , a branch of the Arts and Crafts Movement, popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries . Roycroft was an association of artists, craftsmen, designers, and writers who influenced American architecture, design, and writing.

Their headquarters were the Roycroft Campus, where the annual general meeting, the Roycrofter's Annual Convention, took place. He founded the publishing house Roycroft Press, whose model was the Kelmscott Press by William Morris. Then there was the Roycroft Shop, which sold the books, furniture and other goods produced by Roycroft. The Roycroft Society grew to about 500 members by 1900.

family

Hubbard was the son of Silas Hubbard (1821-1917) and his wife Juliana Frances Read (1829-1924), who had married in 1849 in Buffalo, New York. The father was a doctor of medicine , phrenology , vice president of the Buffalo Medical Association, and had also occasionally excelled as a journalist and writer. In 1904, Silas Hubbard published the book John D. Rockefeller And His Career , an unveiling book about the American entrepreneur John D. Rockefeller .

Hubbard was the third of eight children, only five of whom reached adulthood. He was the only boy who got past childhood: the twins William and Edward died just days after their birth in December 1858 and the first-born child Charles Silas Hubbard died in 1860 at the age of 10, which his mother could never cope with. His sisters were Frances Hannah (1853–1922), Anna Mirenda (1860–1899), Mary Elizabeth (1864–1942) and Honore Chadbourn (1868–1960). Frances married John Durant Larkin, founder of the Larkin Soap Company in Buffalo.

On June 30, 1881, he married Bertha C. Crawford (1861-1946) in Normal , Illinois. She was the daughter of James S. Crawford and Elizabeth Hinkle, a wealthy couple from Allegany County , Maryland . They initially lived together in Buffalo, but moved to East Aurora in 1884.

The couple had four children together: Elbert Green Hubbard II (1882–1970), Ralph Hubbard (1886–1980), Sanford Hubbard (1887–1955) and Catherine Hubbard (1896–1961). After Bertha found out that her husband had cheated on her for years, she divorced in 1903 and applied for custody of the children. Hubbard later said that he had found his first marriage to be stuffy and frustrating, and that his wife was more interested in her potted plants than he was. Bertha, who played a major role in founding and running Roycroft, was awarded monthly judicial royalties on Roycroft's sales. She remained unmarried and died in Washington, DC in 1946 at the age of 85.

Around 1890, a romance developed between the unhappily married Hubbard and the later suffragette and writer Alice Moore (1861-1915). Alice was still a teacher at the East Aurora Academy at the time, teaching Hubbard's children. Hubbard found the lively young woman who was on the local school board with Bertha Hubbard and also lived at times in the Hubbard's house. In 1894 their daughter Miriam emerged from the relationship. Miriam later became, like her mother, a committed women's rights activist. Elbert and Alice were married on January 20, 1904 in Bridgeport , Connecticut .

death

In 1915, Hubbard and his wife were killed in the sinking of the British ocean liner RMS Lusitania off the Irish coast. Hubbard wanted to be closer to the war going on so he could cover it for his magazines. He was aware of the danger of being attacked by German submarines ; not least because every newspaper had reported about it before the Lusitania left. When the ship left New York on May 1, Hubbard, like other celebrity passengers, was interviewed by reporters who asked him if he was concerned about the submarine danger. He said: “I wouldn't blame the Germans if they sank the Lusitania . That could be a good thing for me. I would go down with her and enter the hall of fame. I would be a hero who would go down in history. ”He also stated that he wanted to interview Kaiser Wilhelm II , whom he called Bill Kaiser .

The couple occupied the first-class cabin B-70. When the ship was attacked and sunk in the Irish Channel six days after departure , the Hubbards were on deck. They wanted to get some fresh air and play tennis after lunch. They did not put on life jackets, board a lifeboat, or jump. Most recently, Hubbard was seen walking into a room on the boat deck with his wife, who according to witness statements appeared to be in shock, and closing the door behind him. 1200 people died, including Elbert and Alice Hubbard. Their bodies were never found.

Posthumously

The Roycroft Press published In Memoriam: Elbert and Alice Hubbard in memory of Elbert Hubbard and his wife . It included contributions from many of Hubbard's acquaintances and admirers, including figures such as authors Roger Babson and Ernest Thompson Seton , suffragette Anna Howard Shaw , botanist Luther Burbank , US Secretary of the Interior Franklin Knight Lane , poets James Whitcomb Riley and Ella Wheeler Wilcox , the comic artist Richard Felton Outcault , the ketchup magnate Henry John Heinz and the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elihu Root .

Hubbard's fortune was shared between his eldest son Elbert II ("Bert") and his second marriage daughter, Miriam . He did not include his three other children in his will. Hubbard's eldest son took over the management of Roycroft, which dissolved in the wake of the Great Depression . The Roycroft Shop existed until 1938. The Roycroft Campus Corporation, which was supported by Hubbard's daughter Miriam, is now responsible for the maintenance of Roycroft's historical and artistic heritage.

A bronze plaque was erected in his honor on June 21, 1931 on the corner of Grove Street and Main Street in Hubbard's birthplace, Bloomington. A plaque in memory of his father was also placed at the entrance to Hubbard Park on Lake Bloomington.

Works

  • The Song Of Songs (1895)
  • A Message To Garcia (1899)
  • Time And Chance (1899)
  • Kipling's Barbaric Yawp (1899)
  • So Here Cometh White Hyacinths (1907)
  • Man Of Sorrows (1908)
  • Health And Wealth (1908)
  • Who Lifted The Lid Off Hell? (1915)

Web links

Commons : Elbert Hubbard  - collection of images, videos and audio files