Cassell, JOHN

Cassell, JOHN, founder of the publishing firm of Cassell & Co., the son of a Manchester inn-keeper, was born 23d January 1817. He had but a poor education, but while an apprentice joiner, by careful self-culture, fitted himself for the post of a temperance advocate. He went to London in 1836, and was settled as a tea and coffee merchant in 1847, but soon after turned author and publisher, issuing his Working Man's Friend (1850), Illustrated Exhibitor (1851), Popular Educator (1852), the most popular of all his works, which in a revised form is still on sale; and Family Paper (1853). In 1859 he entered into partnership with Messrs Petter & Galpin, and before his death, on 2d April 1865, he had the satisfaction of witnessing, and sharing in, the prosperity of one of the largest book-factories of modern times.