Isaac Kaufmann Funk was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 Lutheran minister, editor, lexicographer, publisher, and spelling reform

Spelling reform

Many languages have undergone spelling reform, where a deliberate, often officially sanctioned or mandated, change to spelling takes place. Proposals for such reform are also common....

er. He was the co-founder of Funk & Wagnalls Company, the father of author Wilfred J. Funk, and the grandfather of author Peter Funk. Wilfred Funk founded his own publishing company "Wilfred Funk, Inc.", and wrote the "Word Power" feature in Reader's Digest

Reader's Digest

Reader's Digest is a general interest family magazine, published ten times annually. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, its headquarters is now in New York City. It was founded in 1922, by DeWitt Wallace and Lila Bell Wallace...

 from 1945. The feature was carried on by Peter Funk from 1962-1998. Funk & Wagnalls Company published The Literary Digest, The Standard Dictionary of the English Language, and Funk & Wagnalls Standard Encyclopedia,

Biography

Funk was born in 1839 in the village of Clifton, Ohio

Clifton, Ohio

Clifton is a village in Clark and Greene Counties in the U.S. state of Ohio and is home to the Clifton Mill, one of the largest water powered grist mills still in existence...

. In 1842, he moved to Springfield, Ohio

Springfield, Ohio

Springfield is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Clark County. The municipality is located in southwestern Ohio and is situated on the Mad River, Buck Creek and Beaver Creek, approximately west of Columbus and northeast of Dayton. Springfield is home to Wittenberg...

, where his father John managed the Pennsylvania House

Pennsylvania House (Springfield, Ohio)

The Pennsylvania House is a historic inn and tavern in western Springfield, Ohio, United States. Built circa 1822, this three-story brick Federal structure lies along the original National Road and near the old road that connects Springfield with Dayton, Ohio....

. Years later, he attended Wittenberg College (Now Wittenberg University

Wittenberg University

Wittenberg University is a private four-year liberal arts college in Springfield, Ohio serving 2,000 full-time students representing 37 states and approximately 30 foreign countries...

) and Wittenberg Theological Seminary, both in Springfield. Upon his graduation in 1860, he was ordained as a Lutheran pastor, and served pastorates in New York

New 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...

, Indiana

Indiana

Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...

, and his home state of Ohio

Ohio

Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...

. He made an extensive tour through Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

, northern Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

, and Asia Minor

Asia Minor

Asia Minor is a geographical location at the westernmost protrusion of Asia, also called Anatolia, and corresponds to the western two thirds of the Asian part of Turkey...

 in 1872. Funk was a Prohibitionist and also interested himself in psychical research. He founded the Voice, an organ of the Prohibitionist party.

In 1876 he founded the publishing firm of I.K. Funk & Company, with the help of a Wittenberg classmate, Adam Willis Wagnalls

Adam Willis Wagnalls

Adam Willis Wagnalls was an American publisher. He was the co-founder and co-eponym of the Funk & Wagnalls Company in 1877....

, a lawyer and accountant. In 1890 the name was changed to Funk & Wagnalls Company, to more accurately reflect Wagnalls' partnership. In that same year, Funk published The Literary Digest, a departure from the religious works earlier in his career.

Perhaps Funk's most important achievement was his The Standard Dictionary of the English Language published in 1893. He worked with a team of more than 740 people. His aim was to provide essential information thoroughly and simply at the same time. In order to achieve this he placed current meanings first, archaic meanings second, and etymologies

Etymology

Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time.For languages with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts in these languages and texts about the languages to gather knowledge about how words were used during...

 last.

From 1901 until 1906, Funk & Wagnalls compiled the Jewish Encyclopædia

Jewish Encyclopedia

The Jewish Encyclopedia is an encyclopedia originally published in New York between 1901 and 1906 by Funk and Wagnalls. It contained over 15,000 articles in 12 volumes on the history and then-current state of Judaism and the Jews as of 1901...

. After Funk died in 1912, the publishing house eventually became a subsidiary of Thomas Y. Crowell Co.

Thomas Y. Crowell Co.

Thomas Y. Crowell Co. was a publishing company founded by Thomas Y. Crowell in 1834 in the United States.-History:The company began publishing books in 1876, and in 1882 T. Irving Crowell joined his father in the business. Jeremiah Osborne Crowell became the sales manager.In 1909, after Thomas Y....

Selected works

• The Complete Preacher, Sermons Preached By Some of the Most Prominent Clergymen (The Religious Newspaper Agency, New York . 1878)
• Great advance: Address by Dr. I.K. Funk, as chairman of the New York Prohibition State Convention. Saratoga, September 12, 1895 (The Voice. 1895)
• Next Step in Evolution the Present Step (1902)
• The Widow's Mite and Other Psychic Phenomena (Funk & Wagnalls Co. 1904)
• The Psychic Riddle (Funk & Wagnalls Co. 1907)
• Standard Encyclopedia of the World's Knowledge (Funk and Wagnalls Co. 1912)