Page:Portrait of a publisher... and The first hundred years of the house of Appleton, 1825-1025 (IA portraitofpublis00over).pdf/11

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subject of this sketch is Mr. William Worthen Appleton, the third generation of a famous American publishing house, but the circumstances compel me to try for something more. And this for the reason that Mr. Appleton lived to see a typical American trans- formation. When he was admitted to his father's and grandfather's firm, in 1868, book publishing, like most American businesses, was a success of personal initiative and private enterprise. When he died, fifty-five years later, although individual energy and ability were as valuable as ever, something large and impersonal had arisen that no individual could absolutely control. He understood that, with the wisdom of all those great hearts who know that nothing is created alone and who desire only that the thing created shall be greater than they and more durable than the days of a man.

With his tall, white-haired distinction, his gentleness and his fineness, "Mr. Willie," as he was called in respect and affection, may stand very well for almost the last of the old-time publishers. These men were perhaps a handful, like the great editors who were their strict contemporaries-Dana, Raymond, Godkin, Henry Watterson. They performed a very similar service and they were alike in their position in the back- [3]