- Peter Fenelon Collier
Peter Fenelon Collier (
December 12 ,1849 –April 24 ,1909 ) was the publisher ofCollier's Weekly .He was born in
Myshall ,County Carlow ,Ireland in 1849 to Catherine Fenelon and Robert Collier. He emigrated toDayton, Ohio in 1866 when he was seventeen years old. With his savings, he attendedSt. Mary's Seminary inCincinnati for four years. He then worked forSadler and Company a publisher of schoolbooks. With $300 he saved as a salesman, he bought the printing plates toFather Burke's Lectures . In a single year, his sales were $90,000. In July 1873 he married Catherine Dunne. In 1874, he published a biography ofPius IX and later publishedChandler's Encyclopedia andChamber's Encyclopedia . He then began publishingCollier's Library , a series of popular novels.He later formed his own company producing books for the
Roman Catholic market. He founded "Collier's Once a Week" in April, 1888. It was advertised as amagazine of "fiction, fact, sensation, wit, humor, news". By 1892, "Collier's Once a Week" had a circulation of over 250,000, and was one of the largest selling magazines in theUnited States . In 1895, its name was changed toCollier's Weekly : An Illustrated Journal. Collier recruitedJames H. Hare , one of the pioneers of photo-journalism.Norman Hapgood became editor of Collier's Weekly in 1903. He developed a reputation of employing the country's leading writers. In May, 1906, he commissioned Jack London to report on the San Francisco earthquake. Included in London's textual account were sixteen pages ofblack-and-white photographs .Under Hapgood's guidance, Collier's Weekly became involved in
muckraking journalism. The most important of these writers who contributed to the journal during this period included Ida Tarbell, C. P. Connolly, and Ray Stannard Baker. Campaigns instigated by Norman Hapgood involved the direct election of senators, reform of the child labor laws, slum clearance, andwomen's suffrage . In April 1905, an article byUpton Sinclair , "Is Chicago Meat Clean," helped persuade the Senate to pass the Pure Food and Drugs Act (1906) and the Meat Inspection Act (1906).Peter Collier died in 1909. His son,
Robert J. Collier , took over as publisher of Collier's Weekly. When Norman Hapgood joinedHarper's Weekly in 1912, Robert Collier became the new editor. Circulation continued to grow, and by 1917, circulation reached one million.Robert Collier (author) (1885-1950), his nephew, founded Robert Collier Publications.References
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New York Times ;April 24 ,1909 , Saturday; Doctor Too Late. Head of Publishing House. Worked His Own Way Up from a Humble Beginning to Ownership of Collier's Weekly.Peter F. Collier, publisher ofCollier's Weekly and well known in society here and abroad, dropped dead ofapoplexy in the Riding Club, at 7 East Fifty-eighth Street, early this morning. Mr. Collier had been attending the annual horse show which the club gives, and death overtook him as he was descending the stairs to the street.
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