Bohn, HENRY GEORGE

Bohn, HENRY GEORGE, publisher, was born in London, January 4, 1796. His father, a German, was a bookbinder, and latterly a second-hand bookseller, and young Bohn, adopting the latter business, in 1831 started on his own account, amassed many valuable old books, and in 1841 issued his famous 'guinea catalogue,' containing 23,208 articles. Next he tried the 'remainder' trade, and in 1846 he began the issue of the series of works with which his name is identified. It is impossible to estimate too highly the services he has rendered to the community by republishing, at a cheap rate, a vast number of the most valuable works in literature, science, philosophy, theology, &c. The whole eventually numbered over 600 volumes. He also edited the Bibliotheca Parriana, Lowndes's Bibliographer's Manual, &c., and issued translations of Schiller, Goethe, and Humboldt, besides a Handbook of Proverbs, and a Dictionary of English Poetical Quotations. After retiring from business in 1864, his chief stock, copyrights, and second-hand books, realised about £100,000. The china and art collections, sold both before and after his death, realised £45,000. He died August 22, 1884.