The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Johnson, Rossiter

JOHNSON, Rossiter, American author and editor: b. Rochester, N. Y., 27 Jan. 1840. He was graduated at the University of Rochester in 1863 and was associate editor of the Rochester Democrat 1864-68. From 1869 to 1872 he edited the Concord (N. H.) Statesman; and in 1873-77 was associated with George Ripley and Charles A. Dana in editing the American Cyclopædia, while in 1879-80 he aided Sydney Howard Gay in his &lsquo;History of the United States.&rsquo; In 1883-1902 he was editor of the Annual Cyclopædia, and since 1900 has been editor of the &lsquo;Universal Cyclopædia.&rsquo; He edited the series of &lsquo;Little Classics&rsquo; (18 vols., 1874-80); &lsquo;Liber Scriptorum&rsquo; (1893), and was editor-in-chief of the &lsquo;World's Great Books&rsquo; (50 vols., 1898-1901); &lsquo;Great Events by Famous Historians&rsquo; (20 vols., 1904), and of &lsquo;The Authors' Digest&rsquo; (1909). In 1906, in collaboration with Dora Knowlton Ranous, he edited &lsquo;The Literature of Italy&rsquo; (16 vols., 1906). His original works include &lsquo;Phaeton Rogers,&rsquo; a novel of boy life (1881); &lsquo;A History of the French War ending in the Conquest of Canada&rsquo; (1882); &lsquo;History of the War of 1812&rsquo; (1882); &lsquo;Idler and Poet,&rsquo; verse (1883); &lsquo;History of the War of Secession&rsquo; (1888); &lsquo;The End of a Rainbow,&rsquo; a story (1892); &lsquo;The Hero of Manila&rsquo; (1899); &lsquo;Short History of the War with Spain&rsquo; (1899); &lsquo;Morning Lights and Evening Shadows,&rsquo; poems (1902); &lsquo;The Alphabet of Rhetoric&rsquo; (1903); &lsquo;The Clash of Nations&rsquo; (1914); &lsquo;Captain John Smith&rsquo; (1915), and &lsquo;Episodes of the Civil War&rsquo; (1916); &lsquo;Biography of Helen Kendricks Johnson&rsquo; (1917).