Fremont Rider
| Fremont Rider | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Arthur Fremont Rider May 25, 1885 Trenton, New Jersey |
| Died | October 26, 1962 (aged 77) Middletown, Connecticut |
| Nationality | American |
| Education |
Syracuse University Wesleyan University |
| Occupation | writer, editor, publisher, inventor, genealogist, librarian |
| Known for | Advocated for the use of Microform in research libraries |
| Home town | Middletown, Connecticut |
Arthur Fremont Rider (May 25, 1885 – October 26, 1962) was an American writer, poet, editor, inventor, genealogist, and librarian. He studied under Melvil Dewey, of whom he wrote a biography for the ALA. Throughout his life he wrote in several genres including plays, poetry, short stories, non-fiction and an auto-biography which he wrote in the third-person. In the early 20th century he became a noted editor and publisher, working on such publications as Publishers Weekly and the Library Journal. In 1933 he became a librarian at Wesleyan University, eventually becoming director of the university’s Olin Memorial Library and afterwards founding the Godfrey Memorial Library of genealogy and history in 1947. For his contributions to library science and as a librarian at Wesleyan University he was named one of the 100 Most Important Leaders of Library Science and the Library Profession in the twentieth century by the official publication of the American Library Association.
Arthur Fremont Rider was born in Trenton, New Jersey on May 25, 1885. His parents were George Arthur Rider and Charlotte Elizabeth Meader Rider. The family was originally from Middletown, Connecticut, and Rider reports in his biography that his birth in New Jersey was an “accident” resulting from his father’s frequent business trips to that state, on this occasion having brought his wife. Later in life Rider dropped his first name “for somewhat the same reasons that Joseph Rudyard Kipling did,” becoming known simply as Fremont Rider. It was in Middletown that the young Fremont Rider first developed a strong and lasting connection to libraries and library science. Rider himself claims in his autobiography that, although he attended school and received good marks, as a child he was largely self-educated at the Russell Public Library in Middletown. At thirteen, Rider was given access to the library at Wesleyan University by the librarian, William James, when the young boy felt he had “outgrown” the local public library. After receiving permission to use the University library “I went out of Professor James’ office walking on air,” Rider quotes himself; “I had now under my finger tips, not merely the treasures of the Indies, but the very much greater treasures of the Wesleyan University Library.”
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