Frank Nelson Doubleday

Frank Nelson Doubleday (January 8, 1862 – January 30, 1934), known to friends and family as “Effendi”, founded the eponymous Doubleday & McClure Company in 1897, which later operated under other names. Starting work at the age of 14 after his father's business failed, Doubleday began with Charles Scribner's Sons in New York.

His son Nelson Doubleday, son-in-law John Turner Sargent, Sr. and grandson Nelson Doubleday, Jr. all worked in the company and led it through different periods. In 1986, after years of changes in the publishing business, his grandson Nelson Doubleday, Jr. as president sold the Doubleday Company to the German group Bertelsmann.

Frank Doubleday was a native of Brooklyn, New York, the son of William Edwards Doubleday, a hatter and his wife. Frank Doubleday's ancestors came to Boston in the early 17th century. Early in life, he became fascinated with the printing business. By the age of ten, he had saved up enough money to buy his own printing press. He earned back the cost by printing advertising and news circulars for local businesses, and from that point never left the business. Frank's distant relative Ulysses F. Doubleday was a book publisher earlier in the 19th century. When Doubleday was 14, his father's business failed. The youth had to leave school and find a full-time job.

He went to work at the firm of Charles Scribner's Sons in Manhattan for the salary of $3 a week. Doubleday worked 18 years at Scribner's, eventually rising to become the publisher of Scribner's Magazine and head of Scribner's subscription book department. When his relationship with Scribner's soured, Doubleday left the company to go into partnership with Samuel S. McClure, publisher of McClure's Magazine.

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