HUBBARD, Elbert Green [1856-1915] -- American writer, editor and printer

Elbert Hubbard, of East Aurora, New York was a philosopher, soap salesman, entrepreneur, vaudville performer, bohemian, bigamist, horseman, humorist, printer, novelist, moralist, farmer, egotist, liar, plagiarist, avid supporter of big business, avid defender of individual rights, anti-intellectual, supporter of the arts, male chauvinist, pro-feminist, and college drop-out.

I.Y. Hashimoto
Whitman College

Influenced by William Morris (the writer and craftsman), he established at East Aurora, NY, the Roycroft Shop, named after two 17^th century printers, where he produced in the style of the Arts and Craft Movement: pottery, leather and metal work, and objets d'art of various kinds. There he also operated a hotel and published a pocket-sized monthly magazine, the Philistine (1895-1915).

The Philistine was considered scandalous, although it's difficult now to see why, and was a success, with a paid circulation of over 200,000. He also published a larger magazine, the Fra, and numerous chiefly biographical sketches, Little Journeys, and other essays, ultimately filling 14 volumes. Chief among these was his phenomenal Message to Garcia (1899), with a record sales of 40 million copies!

Roycroft employed over 500 craftsmen, working in a pseudo-communal organization at very low wages. From 1900, Hubbard would spend summers on a lecture tour, and his slight frame and "Bohemian" dress, with a ribbon bow tie, became a familiar sight on speaking platforms from coast to coast.

He and his second wife perished in the sinking of the Lusitania by a German U-boat, 7 May 1915.  
 

1895

1895-1915

1908-1917