William Pembroke Fetridge
William Pembroke Fetridge | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1827 Boston, Massachusetts, United States |
| Died | 1896 Paris, France |
| Occupation(s) | Author, publisher, bookseller, distributor of periodicals |
| Years active | c.1848–1896 |
| Known for | Travel literature; Harper's Hand-Book for Travellers |
William Pembroke Fetridge (1827–1896) was a Boston-based author specializing in travel literature, as well as a publisher, bookseller, and distributor of periodicals who later established himself in Paris, France.
Brief biography
Beginning around 1848, Fetridge resided in East Cambridge, Massachusetts. Among his offspring was Henry Pembroke Fetridge.
Between 1850 and 1855, Fetridge and Company operated out of Boston, producing works on diverse subjects and managing a retail establishment known as the Periodical Depot or Periodical Arcade, accessible via Washington Street and State Street entrances. This firm focused on magazines, professional journals in medicine and law, and international news publications. Its contemporaries in the market included firms such as Dyer & Co., Federhen & Co., Hotchkiss & Co., Jordan & Wiley, and Alexander Williams.
In 1850, the Periodical Depot was engaged in publishing and importing British books and served as agents for notable periodicals including Godey's Lady's Book, Harper & Brothers' Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Gleason's Pictorial Drawing-Room Companion, The Flag of Our Union, phrenological texts by Fowler & Wells, medical literature by Hollick, Graham's Magazine, Sartain's Magazine, Hunt's Merchant's Magazine and Commercial Review, medical retrospectives such as James Braithwaite's Retrospect of Medicine, Rankin's Abstract of the Medical Sciences, legal compendia like the Law Library, the London Lancet, alongside various British and international reviews and newspapers.
Additionally, the Periodical Arcade retailed consumer goods including Jacob Townsend's Genuine Sarsaparilla and a soap product marketed as "The Balm of a Thousand Flowers." By 1851, ownership included T.M. Fetridge and Thomas Wagstaff.
Circa 1862, Harper’s publishing house commissioned Fetridge to prepare a travel guide. The inaugural edition of the Harper's Hand-Book for Travellers achieved significant popularity, prompting multiple revised editions. Fetridge spent his final years residing in Paris, where he passed away in 1896. His son Henry took over as chief editor and director of the series titled Fetridge's Handbooks for Travelers in Europe and the East.
External links
- WorldCat. Fetridge, W. Pembroke (William Pembroke)
- Articles with short description
- Articles with hCards
- No local image but image on Wikidata
- American book publishers (people)
- Business figures from Boston
- Authors from Boston
- 19th-century American authors
- American travel literature writers
- American male writers of non-fiction
- 1827 births
- 1896 deaths
- 19th century Boston history
- Boston bookstores
- 19th-century American entrepreneurs
- Bookstores in Boston