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Elbert Hubbard Facts

Elbert Hubbard Facts
Elbert Hubbard was an American philosopher, publisher, and author, responsible for founding the Roycroft artisan community of New York's East Aurora community. He was born Elbert Green Hubbard on June 19th, 1856, in Bloomington, Illinois, to Silas Hubbard, a doctor, and Juliana Frances Read. He had two older siblings, a brother and a sister, and three younger sisters. He attended public school as a child, and at 16 began selling soap and by the age of 22 he was a partner in J.D. Larkin & Co., a soap enterprise in New York. He was 35 when his first novel The Man: A Story of Today is published.
Interesting Elbert Hubbard Facts:
When Elbert Hubbard was 25 he married Bertha Crawford.
While a partner at Larkin Elbert Hubbard pioneered the concept of mail-order merchandising.
In 1883 Elbert and Bertha's son Elbert Hubbard II was born.
At the age of 28 Elbert Hubbard bought an acre in Eat Aurora, New York.
In 1885 Elbert and Bertha's second son Ralph Hubbard was born. In 1887 their son Sanford was born and in 1896 their daughter Katherine was born.
In 1892 Elbert Hubbard sold his share in the business Larkin Company for $75,000. He sold his share in the company to devote his time to writing. He had already published a book The Man: A Story of Today, two years earlier under the men name Aspasia Hobbs.
In 1892 Elbert Hubbard enrolled at Harvard as a special student, but didn't finish the semester.
While on a trip to England and Ireland and was inspired to write a series titled Little Journeys.
Although still married to Bertha, Elbert had a daughter Miriam with a woman Alice Moore, in 1894.
In January of 1895 Elbert's first volume of Little Journeys was complete. That same year Elbert Hubbard, Harry Taber and William Mackintosh began to publish The Philistine, a magazine.
In November of 1895 Elbert purchased both The Philistine and founded Roycroft Press.
By 1899 Elbert had almost 60 employees at Roycroft, which was growing to become a campus and community for artists.
In 1903 Elbert and his first wife Bertha were divorced after she learned of his affair with Alice. Elbert married Alice in 1904.
In 1913 Elbert was convicted of an offence against US postal service laws, but he gained a pardon from President Woodrow Wilson.
During his writing career Elbert Hubbard wrote The Man: A Story of Today, One Day: A Tale of the Prairie, No Enemy (But himself), Forbes of Harvard, Little Journeys to the Homes of Good Men and Great (series), The Philistine (magazine), The Legacy, Time and Chance: A Narrative Life of John Brown, The Life of Ali Baba, Love, Life, and Work, White Hyacinths, Health and Wealth, The Fra Magazine, Hollyhocks and Goldenglow, and Pig Pen Pete or Some Chums of Mine.
In 1915 Elbert and Alice Hubbard boarded the RMS Lusitania, leaving New York. 11 miles from the coast of Ireland the ship was hit by a German u-boat's torpedo and sunk. Elbert and Alice refused to be separated into lifeboats and remained together on the sinking ship. They both died.
Elbert Hubbard II ran Roycroft until 1938.
Elbert Hubbard is responsible for the quote "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade."


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