Halsey (H.W.) Wilson
Encyclopedia
Halsey William Wilson (May 12, 1868 – March 1, 1954) was the creator of the Readers' Guide, the Cumulative Book Index, and the Book Review Digest and founder of the H. W. Wilson Company
, a publisher.
, Vermont
, Wilson was orphaned at the age of two, and raised by his maternal grandparents. When he was 12, he moved to Iowa
to live with an aunt, and later to Minnesota
. He attended Beloit College
, and later the University of Minnesota
. He and a fellow student, Henry S. Morris, set up a student textbook store on campus in 1889, the roots of what would become the H. W. Wilson Company
. In 1891, Wilson first conceived the idea of a regularly updated catalog of books, alphabetized by subject.
Wilson saved sufficient money to launch a service in 1898, investing $500 in the hope that he and his wife could enlist 500 subscribers to the service for a dollar a year. His first year, he would say later, "was memorable for some heartening endorsements, nearly 300 subscriptions, and a rapidly growing deficit". It was in 1900 that Wilson created the United States Catalog and the well-known green volumes of the Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature, known to librarians, teachers and students simply as "The Readers' Guide". The Book Review Digest was introduced in 1905. By 1913, Wilson had outgrown his Rochester, Minnesota, location and relocated his business, in 13 railcars, to White Plains, New York. Four years later, he moved to the Bronx, and the H.W. Wilson Company became one of the leading publishers of contemporary reference materials. As a supplement to the general interest magazine articles in the Readers' Guide, Wilson created more specialized guides to professional journals, such as the Industrial Arts Index (1913), the Agricultural Index (1916), the Education Index (1929), the Art Index (1929), the Bibliographic Index (1938), Current Biography (1940), the Biography Index (1946), the Play Index (1949), and the Short Story Index (1953). Halsey died on March 1, 1954 at the age of 85. In addition to the subscription based guides, the H.W. Wilson Company published numerous well-known reference books, including Joseph Nathan Kane
's Facts About the Presidents and Famous First Facts
.
H. W. Wilson Company
The H. W. Wilson Company is a publisher based in New York City. It publishes print and online indexes, full-text databases, and other products and services for public, school, college, and special libraries around the world....
, a publisher.
Biography
Born in WilmingtonWilmington, Vermont
Wilmington is a town in Windham County, Vermont, United States. The population was 2,225 at the 2000 census.-History:The town was chartered in 1751 by Benning Wentworth, colonial governor of New Hampshire. It was named in honor of Spencer Compton, 1st Earl of Wilmington...
, Vermont
Vermont
Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...
, Wilson was orphaned at the age of two, and raised by his maternal grandparents. When he was 12, he moved to Iowa
Iowa
Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...
to live with an aunt, and later to Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
. He attended Beloit College
Beloit College
Beloit College is a liberal arts college in Beloit, Wisconsin, USA. It is a member of the Associated Colleges of the Midwest, and has an enrollment of roughly 1,300 undergraduate students. Beloit is the oldest continuously operated college in Wisconsin, and has the oldest building of any college...
, and later the University of Minnesota
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...
. He and a fellow student, Henry S. Morris, set up a student textbook store on campus in 1889, the roots of what would become the H. W. Wilson Company
H. W. Wilson Company
The H. W. Wilson Company is a publisher based in New York City. It publishes print and online indexes, full-text databases, and other products and services for public, school, college, and special libraries around the world....
. In 1891, Wilson first conceived the idea of a regularly updated catalog of books, alphabetized by subject.
Wilson saved sufficient money to launch a service in 1898, investing $500 in the hope that he and his wife could enlist 500 subscribers to the service for a dollar a year. His first year, he would say later, "was memorable for some heartening endorsements, nearly 300 subscriptions, and a rapidly growing deficit". It was in 1900 that Wilson created the United States Catalog and the well-known green volumes of the Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature, known to librarians, teachers and students simply as "The Readers' Guide". The Book Review Digest was introduced in 1905. By 1913, Wilson had outgrown his Rochester, Minnesota, location and relocated his business, in 13 railcars, to White Plains, New York. Four years later, he moved to the Bronx, and the H.W. Wilson Company became one of the leading publishers of contemporary reference materials. As a supplement to the general interest magazine articles in the Readers' Guide, Wilson created more specialized guides to professional journals, such as the Industrial Arts Index (1913), the Agricultural Index (1916), the Education Index (1929), the Art Index (1929), the Bibliographic Index (1938), Current Biography (1940), the Biography Index (1946), the Play Index (1949), and the Short Story Index (1953). Halsey died on March 1, 1954 at the age of 85. In addition to the subscription based guides, the H.W. Wilson Company published numerous well-known reference books, including Joseph Nathan Kane
Joseph Nathan Kane
Joseph Nathan Kane was an American non-fiction writer.-Early life:Kane was the oldest of three children in his family born to Jewish parents. His father was Albert Kane and his mother was Hulda Kane. At the time he grew up he lived at Manhattan's Upper West Side in New York City...
's Facts About the Presidents and Famous First Facts
Famous First Facts
Famous First Facts is a book listing "First Happenings, Discoveries and Inventions in the United States". The current version of the book — the sixth edition , published in December 2006 — includes more than 7,500 entries on 1,300 pages, organized by five different indexes.The book was originally...
.