F. A. Davis Company
| Founded | 1879 |
|---|---|
| Founder | F. A. Davis |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Headquarters location | Philadelphia |
| Publication types | Books |
| Nonfiction topics | medical, nursing, and health-related professions |
| Official website | www |
F.A. Davis Company (F.A. Davis or Davis) is a publishing firm headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, founded by F. A. Davis (1850–1917). Davis publishes mostly textbooks and reference books for the medical, nursing, and health-related professions fields.
Frank Allston Davis (1850–1917) was an American businessman and entrepreneur who founded the F.A. Davis Company, a medical publishing company in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1879.
Davis grew up in Vermont and began his working life as a teacher. During the summer of 1870, he traveled to Asbury Park, New Jersey and found a job selling lawn-mowers. His success convinced him that sales was his vocation, and he moved to Philadelphia and became an agent for several publishing houses.
In 1879, while working as an agent for William Wood and Company, a publisher itself and a book distributor for British publishers, Davis launched his company with a manuscript written by Dr. John V. Shoemaker, Dean of the Medico-Chirurgical College, which was part of the University of Pennsylvania.
In the 1880s and 1890s, F.A Davis focused his business activities on the gulf coast of Florida. He was a key figure in the development of St. Petersburg, and built the city’s first electrical power plant. Davis also founded the nearby town of Pinellas Park.
Davis turned his attention to medical publishing after the F.A. Davis Company was reincorporated in 1901. He named Dr. Charles Euchariste de Medicis Sajous, the first person to hold a chair in endocrinology and the first president of the Endocrine Society, as editor that same year.
Dr. Sajous published medically important and commercially successful works during his tenure as editor, including the Analytic Cyclopedia of Practical Medicine, which was called “an excellent work” by JAMA in 1901.
In 1917, F.A. Davis died and control of his business interests passed to his son from his first marriage, Alonzo B. Davis (1873–1942), and his second wife and widow, Irene Davis.
Alonzo Davis focused on his father’s business enterprises in Florida. These businesses fell victim to the crash of 1929. Irene Davis took charge of the publishing company and turned it into a strong enterprise that survived the Great Depression and still exists today.
Irene Davis was “a tiny, energetic lady” whose “sweetness and gentility cloaked a strong will”.
One of Irene Davis’ first tasks was to find a replacement for Dr. Sajous, who died shortly after F.A. Davis. She selected Dr. George Morris Piersol to edit the Analytic Cyclopedia, under whose leadership the work was expanded from 8 to 15 volumes and renamed The Cyclopedia of Medicine, Surgery and Specialties.
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