Joseph Whitaker (May 4, 1820 - May 15, 1895), English publisher, was born in London, and apprenticed to a bookseller at the age of fourteen. After a long experience with various bookselling firms, he began business on his own account as a theological publisher. In January 1858 he started the Bookseller, and for 1869 published the first issue of Whitaker's Almanack, the annual work of reference, which also met with immediate success. In 1874 he published the first edition of the Reference Catalogue of Current Literature, of which several editions have since appeared. Whitaker died at Enfield on the 15th of May 1895 and was buried at West Norwood Cemetery. He was the father of fifteen children; the eldest, Joseph Vernon Whitaker was editor of the American Literary Gazette, and later returned to England to become editor of the Bookseller and the Reference Catalogue. Cuthbert Whitaker, the twelfth child, succeeded his father as editor of the Almanack. A blue plaque was installed to mark his dwelling place, in 1998 at White Lodge, Silver Street, Enfield .
External links
- H. R. Tedder, Whitaker, Joseph (1820–1895) rev. Joseph Coohill, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004 (Subscription required)
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
