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In every university town such as
Cambridge, Massachusetts, there is an outside circle, beyond the institution itself, of cultivated men who may or may not hold its degrees, but who contribute to the intellectual atmosphere.
One of the most widely known and generally useful of these at
Cambridge — whether in his active youth or in the patient and lonely seclusion of his later years — was
John Bartlett, best known as the author of the dictionary entitled “Familiar quotations.”
He was born in
Plymouth, June 14, 1820, was educated in the public schools of that town, and in 1836 entered the bookbinding establishment connected with the
University bookstore in
Cambridge, under
John Owen, who was
Longfellow's first publisher.
In the next year
Bartlett became a clerk in the bookstore, and soon showed remarkable talent for the business.
In 1846
Mr. Owen failed, and
Bartlett remained with his successor,
George Nichols, but became himself the proprietor in 1849.
He had shown himself in this position an uncommonly good publisher and adviser of authors.