Image of Elbert Hubbard

Timeline

Lifetime: 1856 - 1915 Passed: ≈ 108 years ago

Title

Writer, Publisher, Artist, Philosopher

Country/Nationality

United States
Wikipedia

Elbert Hubbard

Elbert Green Hubbard was an American writer, publisher, artist, and philosopher. Raised in Hudson, Illinois, he had early success as a traveling salesman for the Larkin Soap Company. Hubbard is known best as the founder of the Roycroft artisan community in East Aurora, New York, an influential exponent of the Arts and Crafts Movement. 

 

Among Hubbard's many publications were the fourteen-volume work Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great and the short publication A Message to Garcia. He and his second wife, Alice Moore Hubbard, died aboard the RMS Lusitania when it was sunk by a Germa n submarine off the coast of Ireland on May 7, 1915.  

  

Hubbard was born in Bloomington, Illinois, to Silas Hubbard and Juliana Frances Read on June 19, 1856. In the autumn of 1855, his parents had relocated to Bloomington from Buffalo, New York, where his father had a medical practice. Finding it difficult to settle in Bloomington—mainly due to the presence of several already established doctors—Silas moved his family to Hudson, Illinois the next year.  

  

Elbert's first business venture was selling Larkin soap products, a career which eventually brought him to Buffalo, New York. His innovations for Larkin included premiums and "leave on trial".  

  

Hubbard described himself as an anarchist and a socialist. He believed in social, economic, domestic, political, mental and spiritual freedom. In A Message to Garcia and Thirteen Other Things (1901), Hubbard explained his Credo by writing "I believe John Ruskin, William Morris, Henry Thoreau, Walt Whitman and Leo Tolstoy to be Prophets of God, and they should rank in mental reach and spiritual insight with Elijah, Hosea, Ezekiel and Isaiah.": Yet, common themes throughout his works portray him as a capitalist, with his pro-business beliefs and anti-union beliefs.  

  

His best-known work came after he founded Roycroft, an Arts and Crafts community in East Aurora, New York in 1895. This grew from his private press which he had initiated in collaboration with his first wife Bertha Crawford Hubbard, the Roycroft Press, inspired by William Morris' Kelmscott Press. Although called the "Roycroft Press" by latter-day collectors and print historians, the organization called itself "The Roycrofters" and "The Roycroft Shops".  

  

Hubbard edited and published two magazines, The Philistine—A Periodical of Protest and The FRA--A Journal of Affirmation. The Philistine was bound in brown butcher paper and featuring largely satire and whimsy. (Hubbard himself quipped that the cover was butcher paper because: "There is meat inside." The Roycrofters produced handsome, if sometimes eccentric, books printed on handmade paper, and operated a fine bindery, a furniture shop, and shops producing modeled leather and hammered copper goods. They were a leading producer of Mission style products.  

  

A little more than three years after the sinking of the Titanic, the Hubbards boarded the RMS Lusitania in New York City. On May 7, 1915, while at sea 11 miles (18 km) off the Old Head of Kinsale, Ireland, the ship was torpedoed and sunk by the German U-boat U-20. His end seems to have followed the pattern he had admired in Mrs. Straus. In a letter to Elbert Hubbard II dated March 12, 1916, Ernest C. Cowper, a survivor of this event, wrote:  

  

I cannot say specifically where your father and Mrs. Hubbard were when the torpedoes hit, but I can tell you just what happened after that. They emerged from their room, which was on the port side of the vessel, and came on to the boat-deck.  

Neither appeared perturbed in the least. Your father and Mrs. Hubbard linked arms—the fashion in which they always walked the deck—and stood apparently wondering what to do. I passed him with a baby which I was taking to a lifeboat when he said, "Well, Jack, they have got us. They are a damn sight worse than I ever thought they were."  

They did not move very far away from where they originally stood. As I moved to the other side of the ship, in preparation for a jump when the right moment came, I called to him, "What are you going to do?" and he just shook his head, while Mrs. Hubbard smiled and said, "There does not seem to be anything to do."  

The expression seemed to produce action on the part of your father, for then he did one of the most dramatic things I ever saw done. He simply turned with Mrs. Hubbard and entered a room on the top deck, the door of which was open, and closed it behind him.  

It was apparent that his idea was that they should die together, and not risk being parted on going into the water.  

The Roycroft Shops, managed by Hubbard's son, Elbert Hubbard II, operated until 1938. 

Books by Elbert Hubbard

Little Journeys to the Homes of Good Men and Great Cover image

Little Journeys to the Homes of Good Men and Great

Travel Biography
Writer's Life Literary Figures

Elbert Hubbard visits the homes of authors, politicians, poets, philosophers and other prestigious people. If they are still living he speaks with them about their work. If they are dead he reflects on how their surroundings may have influenced them....

Little Journeys to the Homes of Famous Women Cover image

Little Journeys to the Homes of Famous Women

Travel Biography
Writer's Life Literary Figures

Elbert Hubbard describes the homes of authors, poets, social reformers and other prestigious people, reflecting on how their surroundings may have influenced them. These short essays are part biography and part pontification of Hubbard's opinion of t...

Little Journeys to the Homes of American Statesmen Cover image

Little Journeys to the Homes of American Statesmen

Political Science Non-Fiction Biography
Presidency Statesman United States

Elbert Hubbard describes the homes of authors, poets, social reformers and other prestigious people, reflecting on how their surroundings may have influenced them. These short essays are part biography and part pontification of Hubbard's opinion of t...

Little Journeys to the Homes of Great Teachers Cover image

Little Journeys to the Homes of Great Teachers

Philosophy Biography
Writer's Life Literary Figures

Elbert Hubbard describes the homes of authors, poets, social reformers and other prestigious people, reflecting on how their surroundings may have influenced them. These short essays are part biography and part pontification of Hubbard's opinion of t...

Little Journeys to the Homes of Great Businessmen Cover image

Little Journeys to the Homes of Great Businessmen

Business Biography
Economic

Elbert Hubbard describes the homes of authors, poets, social reformers and other prestigious people, reflecting on how their surroundings may have influenced them. These short essays are part biography and part pontification of Hubbard's opinion of t...

Little Journeys to the Homes of Great Scientists Cover image

Little Journeys to the Homes of Great Scientists

Non-Fiction Biography Science
Inventions

Elbert Hubbard describes the homes of authors, poets, social reformers and other prestigious people, reflecting on how their surroundings may have influenced them. These short essays are part biography and part pontification of Hubbard's opinion of t...

Little Journeys to the Homes of Great Musicians Cover image

Little Journeys to the Homes of Great Musicians

Travel Biography
Music

Elbert Hubbard describes the homes of authors, poets, social reformers and other prestigious people, reflecting on how their surroundings may have influenced them. These short essays are part biography and part pontification of Hubbard's opinion of t...

The Mintage  Cover image

The Mintage

Novel
Love Single Author Collections Friendship Journey Wisdom Railway Humanity Orphans

The first describes how 5 frightened orphan children from a foreign country were cared for on a railroad journey of a thousand miles; all by strangers without any planning and without a word of English being spoken or needed. He observed caring human...

Little Journeys to the Homes of Great Lovers Cover image

Little Journeys to the Homes of Great Lovers

Biography
Family Love Nature Autobiography Journey Life Relationships

It explores the lives and relationships of famous couples throughout history, including Napoleon and Josephine, Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and Dante and Beatrice. The book takes readers on a journey through time and space, visit...

Little Journeys to the Homes of Eminent Painters Cover image

Little Journeys to the Homes of Eminent Painters

Essays Biography
Beauty Autobiography Literature Art Journey Life Design

It takes readers on a journey through time and space, offering a glimpse into the homes and lives of these painters. The writing is vivid and descriptive, transporting the reader to the streets of Florence, the canals of Venice, and the fields of Hol...