Bartlett, John


Bartlett, John,

1820–1905, American compiler and publisher, b. Plymouth, Mass. While he worked in his university book store in Cambridge, he compiled the invaluable Familiar Quotations (1855), which ran through nine editions in his lifetime and has been revised and enlarged several times since. Bartlett joined the publishing firm of Little, Brown & Company in 1863 and in 1878 became senior partner. His Shakespeare concordance (1894) is still a standard work.

Bartlett, John

(1820–1905) lexicographer; born in Plymouth, Mass. The self-educated Bartlett began his publishing career as a bookseller in Cambridge, Mass. His Familiar Quotations, which included American, along with the more traditional British and Biblical selections, was first published in 1855; it continues to this day in revised editions, and "Look it up in Bartlett! " is now as famous as many of its contents. He joined Little, Brown and Co. publishers in 1863. He prepared the second American edition of Izaak Walton's The Compleat Angler and, in 1894, he and his wife compiled Phrases and Passages in the Dramatic Works of Shakespeare.