Fremont Rider
Encyclopedia
Arthur Fremont Rider was an American writer, poet, editor, inventor, genealogist, and librarian. He studied under Melvil Dewey
, of whom he wrote a biography for the ALA
. Throughout his life he wrote in several genres including plays, poetry, short stories, non-fiction and an auto-biography which he wrote in the third-person. In the early 20th century he became a noted editor and publisher, working on such publications as Publishers Weekly
and the Library Journal
.
In 1933 he became a librarian at Wesleyan University
, eventually becoming director of the university’s Olin Memorial Library and afterwards founding the Godfrey Memorial Library of genealogy and history in 1947.
For his contributions to library science and as a librarian at Wesleyan University he was named one of the 100 Most Important Leaders of Library Science and the Library Profession in the twentieth century by the official publication of the American Library Association.
on May 25, 1885. His parents were George Arthur Rider and Charlotte Elizabeth Meader Rider. The family was originally from Middletown, Connecticut
, and Rider reports in his biography that his birth in New Jersey was an “accident” resulting from his father’s frequent business trips to that state, on this occasion having brought his wife. Later in life Rider dropped his first name “for somewhat the same reasons that Joseph Rudyard Kipling did,” becoming known simply as Fremont Rider. It was in Middletown that the young Fremont Rider first developed a strong and lasting connection to libraries and library science
. Rider himself claims in his autobiography that, although he attended school and received good marks, as a child he was largely self-educated at the Russell Public Library in Middletown. At thirteen, Rider was given access to the library at Wesleyan University
by the librarian, William James, when the young boy felt he had “outgrown” the local public library. After receiving permission to use the University library “I went out of Professor James’ office walking on air,” Rider quotes himself; “I had now under my finger tips, not merely the treasures of the Indies, but the very much greater treasures of the Wesleyan University Library.”
In 1905 Rider received his degree, Bachelor of Philosophy, from Syracuse University
. He received a Masters with Phi Beta Kappa
from Wesleyan
, upon the latter university’s taking him on as a librarian in 1934. In 1937, Syracuse honored Rider with a Litterarum humanarum
doctor degree.
Rider attended New York State Library School in 1907, but left before graduating to help his mentor, Melvil Dewey, on a revision of the latter’s Decimal Classification system
. As Rider notes, “when one has been a hero worshipper since the age of eleven, and one’s hero invites one to join forces with him, one does not hesitate!” Indeed Fremont Rider always looked up to and had great admiration for his “hero” and teacher. In the preface to his panegyric biography of Dewey, Rider refers to him as a genius and:
Joining Dewey at his Lake Placid Club
, Rider met both his first and second wives. On October 8 th, 1908 Rider married Grace Godfrey, who was Dewey’s niece. That marriage produced two children; a son, Leland, born in 1910; and a daughter, Deirdre, born 1913. Grace Godfrey died in 1950 and one year later Rider married Marie Gallup Ambrose who was the daughter of Asa Oran Gallup, the Club’s
manager at the time Rider was there with Melvil Dewey. Marie Gallup Ambrose was also the grandniece of Melvil Dewey.
and after some trial was given a job as associate editor of The Delineator
. In 1910 Rider returned to the field of librarianship, if indirectly, by joining the R. R. Bowker’s publishing company, and taking the position of Managing Editor for Publishers Weekly
, and Library Journal
in 1914. Both positions he held until 1917. From 1909 to 1921 Fremont Rider worked as an editor or publisher for ten different periodicals including: American Library Annual, Information, the New Idea Women’s Magazine, the Monthly Book Review, International Military Digest, and the The Business Digest. Both Information, which Rider bought from Bowker, and the International Military Digest, Rider published through his own Rider Press, which he ran as president from 1914-1932. In 1918 Rider also became vice president of the Arrow Publishing Company.
Fremont Rider wrote on numerous topics throughout his life, and voiced his opinion and suggested solutions for the problems he saw in many of them. While working at The Delineator he wrote his first book, Are the Dead Alive in which he attempted to present the case for what he calls “psychical” research, and in general was what Rider believed to be an objective approach to the popular subject of “Spiritualism.” At the height of the Great Depression Rider published an article in The North American Review in which he identified the class warfare
promoted by industrial unions as the principal cause of the labor troubles, although he admitted that the solution to the problem of “poverty amidst plenty” was not to cut back on production, but to increase wages, and so “increase purchasing power” of those who would buy the products of industrial and agricultural industry. After World War II
Rider wrote a short book in which he advocated for a true One-World government
. His proposed solution for the question of legislative power allotted to the various nation participants was one based on an “intellectual” index, that would translate, in his words, to “very real, but vaguely defined, concept that we call ‘national importance’.”
to take a permanent librarianship position at Wesleyan
. A year later the university awarded him a Masters ad eundum
, Phi Beta Kappa. Subsequently, after becoming director of Wesleyan’s Olin Memorial Library, Rider wrote his most significant work on the subject of Library Science, The Scholar and The Future of the Research Library (published in 1944). In The Scholar, he laid out the problem of increasing shortage of space in research libraries and described the microcard, a microform
of his own invention being a 7 and a half by 12 and a half centimeter opaque card. Upon the catalogue, or front-side, would be the catalogue information. Upon the reverse, Rider wanted to reproduce “as many as 250 pages of an ordinary 12mo
book on the back of a single card.” The idea was inspired by recent developments he had been following in the production and printing of micro-text, especially by the Readex Microprint Corporation
. Rider envisioned that these microcards would serve both as the catalogue and collection, thus not only saving shelving space by eliminating books, but also doing away with the need to have a catalogue collection separate from manuscript collection. Researchers would search the catalogue for the entry they wished, and then having selected it would take the card to a reader machine which might be no bigger than a briefcase.
When the book was published the problem of research library expansion was a significant concern for those in the profession. Although he has since been proven wrong in his assertion that research libraries double in size every sixteen years, Rider's prediction that microform material would be employed to solve the issue of collection space and growth was prescient though at the time he could not have known that microform would in turn be superseded by the digital revolution. His idea that a library’s catalogue and collection could be one and the same foreshadowed the possibilities opened by digital media collections. Rider was also noted for his controversial method of book shelving which involved shaving the books to make them fit in tighter spaces.
In addition, while director of Olin, Rider "started putting together the idea for a monumental index that would help genealogists all over the world in their research. That was the beginning of the American Genealogical Biographical Index (AGBI) and the Godfrey Memorial Library."
Melvil Dewey
Melville Louis Kossuth Dewey was an American librarian and educator, inventor of the Dewey Decimal system of library classification, and a founder of the Lake Placid Club....
, of whom he wrote a biography for the ALA
American Library Association
The American Library Association is a non-profit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with more than 62,000 members....
. Throughout his life he wrote in several genres including plays, poetry, short stories, non-fiction and an auto-biography which he wrote in the third-person. In the early 20th century he became a noted editor and publisher, working on such publications as Publishers Weekly
Publishers Weekly
Publishers Weekly, aka PW, is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers and literary agents...
and the Library Journal
Library Journal
Library Journal is a trade publication for librarians. It was founded in 1876 by Melvil Dewey . It reports news about the library world, emphasizing public libraries, and offers feature articles about aspects of professional practice...
.
In 1933 he became a librarian at Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University is a private liberal arts college founded in 1831 and located in Middletown, Connecticut. According to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Wesleyan is the only Baccalaureate College in the nation that emphasizes undergraduate instruction in the arts and...
, eventually becoming director of the university’s Olin Memorial Library and afterwards founding the Godfrey Memorial Library of genealogy and history in 1947.
For his contributions to library science and as a librarian at Wesleyan University he was named one of the 100 Most Important Leaders of Library Science and the Library Profession in the twentieth century by the official publication of the American Library Association.
Early Life and Education
Arthur Fremont Rider was born in Trenton, New JerseyTrenton, New Jersey
Trenton is the capital of the U.S. state of New Jersey and the county seat of Mercer County. As of the 2010 United States Census, Trenton had a population of 84,913...
on May 25, 1885. His parents were George Arthur Rider and Charlotte Elizabeth Meader Rider. The family was originally from Middletown, Connecticut
Middletown, Connecticut
Middletown is a city located in Middlesex County, Connecticut, along the Connecticut River, in the central part of the state, 16 miles south of Hartford. In 1650, it was incorporated as a town under its original Indian name, Mattabeseck. It received its present name in 1653. In 1784, the central...
, and Rider reports in his biography that his birth in New Jersey was an “accident” resulting from his father’s frequent business trips to that state, on this occasion having brought his wife. Later in life Rider dropped his first name “for somewhat the same reasons that Joseph Rudyard Kipling did,” becoming known simply as Fremont Rider. It was in Middletown that the young Fremont Rider first developed a strong and lasting connection to libraries and library science
Library science
Library science is an interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary field that applies the practices, perspectives, and tools of management, information technology, education, and other areas to libraries; the collection, organization, preservation, and dissemination of information resources; and the...
. Rider himself claims in his autobiography that, although he attended school and received good marks, as a child he was largely self-educated at the Russell Public Library in Middletown. At thirteen, Rider was given access to the library at Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University is a private liberal arts college founded in 1831 and located in Middletown, Connecticut. According to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Wesleyan is the only Baccalaureate College in the nation that emphasizes undergraduate instruction in the arts and...
by the librarian, William James, when the young boy felt he had “outgrown” the local public library. After receiving permission to use the University library “I went out of Professor James’ office walking on air,” Rider quotes himself; “I had now under my finger tips, not merely the treasures of the Indies, but the very much greater treasures of the Wesleyan University Library.”
In 1905 Rider received his degree, Bachelor of Philosophy, from Syracuse University
Syracuse University
Syracuse University is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York, United States. Its roots can be traced back to Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832, which also later founded Genesee College...
. He received a Masters with Phi Beta Kappa
Phi Beta Kappa Society
The Phi Beta Kappa Society is an academic honor society. Its mission is to "celebrate and advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences"; and induct "the most outstanding students of arts and sciences at America’s leading colleges and universities." Founded at The College of William and...
from Wesleyan
Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University is a private liberal arts college founded in 1831 and located in Middletown, Connecticut. According to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Wesleyan is the only Baccalaureate College in the nation that emphasizes undergraduate instruction in the arts and...
, upon the latter university’s taking him on as a librarian in 1934. In 1937, Syracuse honored Rider with a Litterarum humanarum
Doctor of Humane Letters
The degree of Doctor of Humane Letters is always conferred as an honorary degree, usually to those who have distinguished themselves in areas other than science, government, literature or religion, which are awarded degrees of Doctor of Science, Doctor of Laws, Doctor of Letters, or Doctor of...
doctor degree.
Rider attended New York State Library School in 1907, but left before graduating to help his mentor, Melvil Dewey, on a revision of the latter’s Decimal Classification system
Dewey Decimal Classification
Dewey Decimal Classification, is a proprietary system of library classification developed by Melvil Dewey in 1876.It has been greatly modified and expanded through 23 major revisions, the most recent in 2011...
. As Rider notes, “when one has been a hero worshipper since the age of eleven, and one’s hero invites one to join forces with him, one does not hesitate!” Indeed Fremont Rider always looked up to and had great admiration for his “hero” and teacher. In the preface to his panegyric biography of Dewey, Rider refers to him as a genius and:
“Whether we like to admit it or not, geniuses cannot in fairness be judged by the standards we apply to ordinary folk. … Except for him I would never have entered the library profession. Except for him there would have been no library profession (in the form that we know it) for me to enter. ”
Joining Dewey at his Lake Placid Club
Lake Placid Club
The Lake Placid Club was a social and recreation club founded 1895 in Lake Placid, New York by Melvil Dewey, and intended as a place where educators might find health, strength and inspiration at modest cost...
, Rider met both his first and second wives. On October 8 th, 1908 Rider married Grace Godfrey, who was Dewey’s niece. That marriage produced two children; a son, Leland, born in 1910; and a daughter, Deirdre, born 1913. Grace Godfrey died in 1950 and one year later Rider married Marie Gallup Ambrose who was the daughter of Asa Oran Gallup, the Club’s
Lake Placid Club
The Lake Placid Club was a social and recreation club founded 1895 in Lake Placid, New York by Melvil Dewey, and intended as a place where educators might find health, strength and inspiration at modest cost...
manager at the time Rider was there with Melvil Dewey. Marie Gallup Ambrose was also the grandniece of Melvil Dewey.
Career as Editor, Publisher, and Writer
In 1907 Rider moved to New YorkNew York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and after some trial was given a job as associate editor of The Delineator
The Delineator
The Delineator was an American women's magazine of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, founded by the Butterick Publishing Company in 1869 under the name The Metropolitan Monthly. Its name was changed in 1875. In November 1926, under the editorship of Mrs...
. In 1910 Rider returned to the field of librarianship, if indirectly, by joining the R. R. Bowker’s publishing company, and taking the position of Managing Editor for Publishers Weekly
Publishers Weekly
Publishers Weekly, aka PW, is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers and literary agents...
, and Library Journal
Library Journal
Library Journal is a trade publication for librarians. It was founded in 1876 by Melvil Dewey . It reports news about the library world, emphasizing public libraries, and offers feature articles about aspects of professional practice...
in 1914. Both positions he held until 1917. From 1909 to 1921 Fremont Rider worked as an editor or publisher for ten different periodicals including: American Library Annual, Information, the New Idea Women’s Magazine, the Monthly Book Review, International Military Digest, and the The Business Digest. Both Information, which Rider bought from Bowker, and the International Military Digest, Rider published through his own Rider Press, which he ran as president from 1914-1932. In 1918 Rider also became vice president of the Arrow Publishing Company.
Fremont Rider wrote on numerous topics throughout his life, and voiced his opinion and suggested solutions for the problems he saw in many of them. While working at The Delineator he wrote his first book, Are the Dead Alive in which he attempted to present the case for what he calls “psychical” research, and in general was what Rider believed to be an objective approach to the popular subject of “Spiritualism.” At the height of the Great Depression Rider published an article in The North American Review in which he identified the class warfare
Class conflict
Class conflict is the tension or antagonism which exists in society due to competing socioeconomic interests between people of different classes....
promoted by industrial unions as the principal cause of the labor troubles, although he admitted that the solution to the problem of “poverty amidst plenty” was not to cut back on production, but to increase wages, and so “increase purchasing power” of those who would buy the products of industrial and agricultural industry. After World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
Rider wrote a short book in which he advocated for a true One-World government
World government
World government is the notion of a single common political authority for all of humanity. Its modern conception is rooted in European history, particularly in the philosophy of ancient Greece, in the political formation of the Roman Empire, and in the subsequent struggle between secular authority,...
. His proposed solution for the question of legislative power allotted to the various nation participants was one based on an “intellectual” index, that would translate, in his words, to “very real, but vaguely defined, concept that we call ‘national importance’.”
Legacy to Library Sciences
In 1933 Rider returned to MiddletownMiddletown, Connecticut
Middletown is a city located in Middlesex County, Connecticut, along the Connecticut River, in the central part of the state, 16 miles south of Hartford. In 1650, it was incorporated as a town under its original Indian name, Mattabeseck. It received its present name in 1653. In 1784, the central...
to take a permanent librarianship position at Wesleyan
Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University is a private liberal arts college founded in 1831 and located in Middletown, Connecticut. According to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Wesleyan is the only Baccalaureate College in the nation that emphasizes undergraduate instruction in the arts and...
. A year later the university awarded him a Masters ad eundum
Ad eundem degree
An ad eundem degree is a courtesy degree awarded by one university or college to an alumnus of another. The recipient of the ad eundem degree is often a faculty member at the institution where he or she is receiving the honor....
, Phi Beta Kappa. Subsequently, after becoming director of Wesleyan’s Olin Memorial Library, Rider wrote his most significant work on the subject of Library Science, The Scholar and The Future of the Research Library (published in 1944). In The Scholar, he laid out the problem of increasing shortage of space in research libraries and described the microcard, a microform
Microform
Microforms are any forms, either films or paper, containing microreproductions of documents for transmission, storage, reading, and printing. Microform images are commonly reduced to about one twenty-fifth of the original document size...
of his own invention being a 7 and a half by 12 and a half centimeter opaque card. Upon the catalogue, or front-side, would be the catalogue information. Upon the reverse, Rider wanted to reproduce “as many as 250 pages of an ordinary 12mo
Bookbinding
Bookbinding is the process of physically assembling a book from a number of folded or unfolded sheets of paper or other material. It usually involves attaching covers to the resulting text-block.-Origins of the book:...
book on the back of a single card.” The idea was inspired by recent developments he had been following in the production and printing of micro-text, especially by the Readex Microprint Corporation
Readex
Readex has published numerous collections of primary source research materials, first as Readex Microprint Corporation and since 1984 as a division of NewsBank....
. Rider envisioned that these microcards would serve both as the catalogue and collection, thus not only saving shelving space by eliminating books, but also doing away with the need to have a catalogue collection separate from manuscript collection. Researchers would search the catalogue for the entry they wished, and then having selected it would take the card to a reader machine which might be no bigger than a briefcase.
When the book was published the problem of research library expansion was a significant concern for those in the profession. Although he has since been proven wrong in his assertion that research libraries double in size every sixteen years, Rider's prediction that microform material would be employed to solve the issue of collection space and growth was prescient though at the time he could not have known that microform would in turn be superseded by the digital revolution. His idea that a library’s catalogue and collection could be one and the same foreshadowed the possibilities opened by digital media collections. Rider was also noted for his controversial method of book shelving which involved shaving the books to make them fit in tighter spaces.
In addition, while director of Olin, Rider "started putting together the idea for a monumental index that would help genealogists all over the world in their research. That was the beginning of the American Genealogical Biographical Index (AGBI) and the Godfrey Memorial Library."