Walter Montgomery Jackson

Walter Montgomery Jackson (1863 in Newton Lower Falls, Massachusetts - 1923) was the less-active partner of Horace Everett Hooper in publishing the 10th edition of the "Encyclopædia Britannica" and in developing its 11th. He split with Hooper in 1908-1909 in a remarkably nasty legal fight; after failing to wrest control of the "Britannica" from Hooper, Jackson went on to found his own encyclopedia, the "Book of Knowledge".

Jackson began to work cleaning the bookshop and offices of Estes and Lauriat in Boston, ten miles from his birthplace. By the age of 22, he was a partner in the firm, overseeing the manufacturing and publishing. He helped expand the distribution of the firm, but quickly became involved in other publishing ventures as part-owner or director. Jackson also founded the Grolier Society, which specialized in making extra-fine editions of classics and rare literature. The Society was named after the Grolier Club, which had been founded in 1884 to advance the arts involved in making books and which was named after a well-known French bibliophile, Jean Grolier de Servières.

"The Children's Encyclopaedia" was a 10-volume compilation of a popular children's journal of the same name founded and edited by Arthur Mee and published by Alfred Harmsworth, Lord Northcliffe. Being an assembly of the journal issues, the encyclopedia was not organized alphabetically, but rather topically; navigation was assisted by an index in the final volume. It sold well in England, and Jackson secured the American reprint rights in the first decade of the 20th century. After resolving some copyright issues with Lord Northcliffe, Jackson sold the compilation under the title, the "Book of Knowledge".